You just couldn't make it up. The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police secretly recorded a telephone converation he'd had with Lord Falconer. The secretly recorded conversation between the two men concerned the admissibility of secretly recorded conversations in court. Sorry to repeat myself but you just couldn't make it up.
Lord Falconer is apparently "rather cross".
Satire
When the police tell us they need these powers, to secretly record private conversations with ministers and others, I think we have to listen to them. If we are forced to compromise, it will be a compromise with this nation's security, don't let anyone be in any doubt about that. And with the greatest respect, the question is not for me, the question is for those people who criticise this, on the basis that they know better than the people who have given their professional advice that they need this power to protect our country.
Lord Falconer, it would appear, feels that he knows better. Sir Ian has given a characteristically thoughtful response.
Next week will see the launch of a new bill to abolish parliament and replace it with a police junta. Democracy is not for the people. To describe this as an affront to the basic civil liberties of the nation is in my view just an extraordinary thing to say. It is the civil liberties of people who need to be protected against terrorist attack that should be uppermost in everyone's mind.
Remember that this is not a plan dreamed up by me, it is what the most senior police officers in the country, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, the head of anti-terrorist policing, the Association of Chief Police Officers, it is what they have asked us to do as they battle to prevent further terrorist outrages after the July 7 attack.
Are you going to question that judgement? Are you a traitor too?
Update
It Simon points out below, it was Lord Goldsmith, not Lord Falconer. Apologies.
Tags: News, Politics, Sir Ian Blair
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