Head of Legal (Free subscription) | yesterday
Sam Coates at Red Box has apparently been given differing views about how bad misconduct has to be in order to count for the purposes of the criminal offence of misconduct in a public office. Lawyers have told the Times that to meet its test, money would have had to have changed hands, or some other impropriety or inducement amounting to "misconduct" taken place. Senior civil servants have
Chris Whiteside's Blog (Free subscription) | 11/30/2008
The more I read about the common law offence of “aiding and abetting, counselling or procuring misconduct in a public office” the more I am convinced that it is dangerously vague and bad law, and should be abolished. A number of journalists including Sam Coates and Matthew Parris in The Times and Nick Cohen in the Guardian have written very powerful articles on this. With superbly ironic timing,...
Moments of Clarity (Free subscription) | 11/28/2008
Are the reports on Red Box true? If the Conservatives have footage of the raid then I think the immediate questions become how and why'? Sam Coates says that if it exists then; "Any footage of the police in an MPs' office is likely to put yet more pressure on the Speaker and Seargant at Arms to justify why he allowed them in first place." I think the reverse is true; if they do they are sitting...
Boulton (Free subscription) | 11/28/2008
Over at Sam Coates' great Red Box blog he has an intriging development on the Damian Green case: "Tories filmed the raid in Parliament. They wont confirm it officially, but it's there, I'm told. Any footage of the police in an MPs' office is likely to put yet more pressure on the Speaker and Seargant at Arms to justify why he allowed them in first place." We wait with baited breath.
Dickiebo (Free subscription) | 11/28/2008
... warning for anybody to see which way the wind is blowing! Speaking in The Times Online today, Sam Coates says, “So to the Damian Green arrest, which police say was made on suspicion he was “aiding and abetting, counselling or procuring misconduct in a public office”. Looking back at the handful of prosecutions this statute has brought about, stories about the police’s use of this offence...
