According to Rachael Slyvester in the Times
The Government has lost control of the flow of information. The pursuit of Damian Green was the wrong way to stem itand continues
this case is not just about the constitutional role of the Opposition. It also reveals a more general concern at the highest level in the Civil Service about how the workings of government are being revealed. As interesting as the questions about the behaviour of the police towards Mr Green is why the Permanent Secretary at the Home Office, Sir David Normington, and his boss, the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, decided to set the boys in blue on the boy in blue.
Philip Stevens in the FT goes a little further
The police are out of control. So is the government. We can only conjecture as to what possessed the senior officers who raided the homes and parliamentary office of Damian Green, the Conservative immigration spokesman. Yet their disdain for political process spoke eloquently to the authoritarian culture of our times
For Stephen Glover
One of the most disturbing developments in Britain over the past 30 years has been the loss of confidence which many ordinary law-abiding citizens have in our police.
The arrest of Damien Green he says falls into this catagory
Even Labour MPs are disturbed that Mr Green's Commons office and home should have been searched as a result of a few innocent leaks to the media of the sort that Gordon Brown used to specialise in when he was in Opposition. This really is the Stasi state in action - the police acting on behalf of the regime against its perceived 'enemies'.
For Steven Richards
In order to understand why Damian Green was arrested with such spectacular insensitivity, take a look at how the next Chief of the Metropolitan Police will be appointedand reminds us that
the next Chief will also be able to take decisions without political masters getting overtly involved.
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