Sir. It is futile to expect a balanced media approach to the question of Damian Green’s arrest. Few reporters are going to bite the hands that feed them. But before the whole thing becomes part of Planet Hysterical, may I, as one who was involved both in leaks and leak inquiries, offer a few cautionary words. First, if the information allegedly passed by a civil servant to the MP was non-classified, no action should have been taken other than disciplining the civil servant involved. But classified information is covered by the Official Secrets Act and breaching it is a criminal offence, hence the prosecutions of Clive Ponting and Sarah Tisdall (by a Conservative government). To claim that an MP has a “duty” to expose government secrets is a dangerous nonsense which could rebound on those making it. MPs, like journalists, do not have a right to break the law. If they don’t like the law, they should endeavour to change it. I know nothing beyond what I hear and read about the Green case, but if a man is breaking the law, with the active encouragement of a newspaper or a parliamentarian, then he and the person to whom he passes the information should expect the normal consequences for a law-breaker. I always understood that the receiver of stolen goods is as guilty as the thief.

Joe Haines

Tunbridge Wells, Kent

Sir, The arrest of Damian Green brings into the public arena an issue which troubles me as a lawyer and former police officer.

For many years police forces across the country have eschewed the practice of dealing with criminal suspects “on summons” in favour of the practicality and convenience of arrest and charge. This is especially the case since the latter procedure entitles them to enter and search premises without a warrant.

The vast majority of criminal suspects dealt with in this way are guilty of some if not all of the wrongdoing of which they are suspected. Some, while not guilty, may not be deserving of public sympathy. A small number, however, are guilty of neither criminal nor moral wrongdoing and have become the subject of suspicion through no fault of their own, that or they have made a genuine mistake or error of judgement. In such cases police reluctance to allow suspects to be dealt with as a “non-casual visitors to a police station” coupled with the removal of restrictive powers of arrest in favour of the very wide power to arrest “to allow the prompt and effective investigation of an offence” occasionally criminalises truly innocent individuals. The decision to arrest in every case has become routine, even policy.

The fact that similar thinking has now led to the arrest and detention of a prominent politician and caused adverse comment to be directed towards the Metropolitan Police may hopefully cause police forces across the country to review their practices in this area.

Adam Walker

Burley in Wharfedale, N Yorks

Sir, David Cameron’s indignation at the arrest of Damien Green conveniently ignores the indifference of his party to the plight of public employees who choose to blow the whistle on government hypocrisy. In 1983 Sarah Tisdall, a clerical officer in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, leaked documents on the arrival of cruise missiles in this country which outlined the political tactics that Michael Heseltine would use to sell this to the House of Commons. She was prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act at the Old Bailey, rather than the magistrates’ court, and received a harsh six-month prison sentence despite acting in the public interest as opposed to seeking party political advantage. The case was aggressively pursued by the Conservative Government.

Tisdall was motivated by a concern that Michael Heseltine was not going to be accountable to Parliament on the day that the missiles arrived. National security was not an issue; her prosecution was solely to deter others.

Before the Conservatives start lecturing us on the need to protect the dignity and privileges of MPs, it would be appropriate if they issued a public apology to Sarah Tisdall for what was done to her. Surely she and other whistle-blowers across the public sector deserve the same indignation and outrage as our politicians.

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