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Are the police being used as a political weapon?

wgm Sun Dec 02, 2007 at 03:56:36 PM GMT Facebook

The requests - by the Lib Dems over the Abrahams case and the SNP over the Alexander case - for the police to investigate Labour politicians over donations obviously mirrors the "cash for honours" enquiry last year.

When presented with a case the police, by law, have to investigate. Their involvement becomes a news headline in itself, as we have seen over recent days. Enquiries take time, then the CPS has to make a decision. In the cash for honours enquiry this was a long, drawn out process. A swift rejection of the case would have left the police & CPS open to accusations of a "whitewash". Even when, as in the case of cash for honours, no prosecutions are forthcoming, the damage has been done. Ministers resign, aides careers are wrecked, the media and the opposition say that Labour have "more questions to answer". Mud sticks. Trust in politicians erodes even further.

Perhaps this is all part of modern politics, something Britain has avoided in the past where other European states have not, and perhaps it has been around since Lloyd George's time. It may well be an inevitable consequence of the new laws governing political party funding Labour has put in place since 1997.

I'm not saying that the police should not be involved if evidence of crimes is there to investigate, but should we be concerned that taking this serious step is becoming all too easy and is something that could ultimately undermine our democratic processes?

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tags: police, funding, CPS (all tags)

Are the police being used as a political weapon? | 4 comments (4 topical)

Re: Are the police being used as a political weapo (#1)

by rwendland on Sun Dec 02, 2007 at 07:32:50 PM GMT

I think you are underestimating the seriousness of this. It is clear someone broke the law. Apparently the police are looking back to 2000, presumably to see if Abrahams had a pattern of anonymous donating before PPERA came into force, and if third-parties were used back then. And Abrahams's description of the method used to hide his name as "the usual terms" suggests there might be more donors that have used this method.

The underlying problem seems to be the switch to funding from rich individuals, and the struggle to get enough money in.

Re: (#2)

by JoeRoberts on Sun Dec 02, 2007 at 09:50:11 PM GMT

I think wgm is right. I think most people in Scotland, for example, would prefer that the Police were out on the streets catching criminals, rather than quizzing Wendy Alexander about a cheque for 900 quid, don't you?

Yes (#3)

by Wilberforce on Mon Dec 03, 2007 at 10:31:57 AM GMT

Yes they are. And often are. But then again there is clearly a wrong here that needs to be investigated. But we should just be completely open about it now, and anyone knowingly deceptive should go. I just hope to God that the Tories and Lib Dems have similar skeletons.

It could be much worse... just look at the US Special Prosecutors and the years that the Clinton administration was distracted, and the millions of dollars spent, over baseless accusations and ultimately just an extra-marital affair. Now, their President used the Police to intimidate Black voters in Florida handing him the 2000 victory, lied to get a nation into war, illegally occupies a country, illegally detains hundreds at Guantanamo in breach of Geneva Convention etc etc.... not a charge or hint of real investigation.

As for the Police being used as a political tool here, speak to any of us who grew up in the North in the Tory years and how they were used to break the Miners. I remember the car being stopped at road blocks... My grandma was just telling me at the weekend how she remembers a seeing woman collecting money with a bucket for the miners being told by the Police to stop and replying helplessly 'it just for their bairns'...

But think about that, people out in the streets, all over the country collecting for the cause of the Left back then... and now we getting money from dodgy businessmen. How do we reconnect with that core base?

Yes (#4)

by JoeRoberts on Mon Dec 03, 2007 at 06:08:40 PM GMT

I was watching a DVD at the weekend - 'the Hunting of the President'. It's a feature length documentary about the Republicans' attempts to bring down Bill Clinton's presidency in the 1990s.

As I was watching the antics of Kenneth Starr and the attempts to implicate Bill and Hillary in the Whitewater scandal, it all seemed very familiar.

I think there is increasingly a tendency in politics for people to use the Courts and the Police to achieve what they cannot do through the ballot box.

The cash for questions affair was a perfect example. A Scottish Nationalist MP, Angus McNeill, made a politically motivated allegation for which he had no evidence, largely for the benefit of the SNP's Holyrood election campaign. The Police were duty bound to investigate.

It's a win-win situation for McNeill and his ilk. Tony Blair, Lord Levy and others had their reputation tarnished merely by the fact that there was a well publicised Police investigation taking place and the media are happy to report allegations as fact. When the CPS decided there was no case to answer, the SNP and the media were able to have it both ways by saying it was all an official whitewash.