Politics - the whiff of a bad scent

A British politician is investigated by the police. They visit his home searching for evidence. His daughter is said to witness the event and is distraught. His wife is distraught.

The politician is held for questioning for 9 hours on the basis:

"on suspicion of conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office and aiding and abetting, counselling or procuring misconduct in a public office".

He denies any wrong doing.

The police, Special Branch, continue their search at the House of Commons;think the offices of a congressman as the equivalent.

The Home Office Minister makes it clear that Police independence is paramount and that the investigation is into a a series of breaches, systematic leaks from within a government department which handles sensitive information.

Did the home office minister grant the warrant for the search. She is not committed. But denies any involvement in the case.

Will she apologise for the way in which the police went about investigating causing distress to his family.

She does not commit. It is a police investigation.

Rightly or wrongly, there is a bad whiff about this.

Read here for one of the UK's most respected journalist's Joshua Rozenberg's take on this case. Very interesting indeed.

In the late 90s/ early 2000s I worked as a producer on a political programme edited by Andrew Brown, the brother of Gordon Brown, Prime Minister. Politics can often be predictable at the best of times, but I was wondering how we'd get our teeth into this, if the programme was still running.