Damian Green
Damien Green’s arrest
Monday 1st December 2008
It's the State Opening of Parliament this week. Normally it's a piece of colourful tradition which kicks off the Parliamentary year. The House of Lords gets dressed up in fancy old clothes and the Queen arrives in a state carriage to read out the laws which the Government is planning to introduce in the next 12 months.
But it isn't all theatre. There's a serious point behind the traditions too. The House of Commons has to protect MPs from being beaten up or arrested by the state, so they can stand up properly for local people against the Government if necessary. That means the army, the police, or even the Queen herself, aren't allowed into the Commons without MPs' permission.
It works well, too. The last time any Government tried anything was way back in 1642 when Charles 1st tried to arrest five MPs who dared to disagree with him. So at every State Opening since then, when the Queen sends Black Rod to order the MPs to come and listen to her in the House of Lords, we slam the door of the Commons in his face. It's a tradition with a tremendously serious point: he's only allowed in if we let him.
So when Damian Green, a Conservative MP from Kent, was arrested last week for leaking information which had embarrassed the Government, jaws dropped. 366 years after Charles 1st, the British state has gone back to locking up MPs who disagree with it. It's the kind of thing you'd expect in Zimbabwe or North Korea, not here.
There's going to be an almighty row about this. If Government Ministers knew about it in advance they're guilty of behaving like Stalin. If they didn't then they aren't doing their jobs properly because they've let the police get out of control. The Speaker of the Commons is potentially in trouble too: he's elected by the other MPs to stop precisely this kind of thing from happening, but didn't. The traditions will have a special meaning this year……
