Marathon Pundit: Free speech under in fire in the UK

First Latvia, now Great Britain.

Free speech is under fire in Europe. While eyes around the world were glued to TV screens as the last week's horrors in Mumbai unfolded, free speech rights took another hit.

Roger Kimball of Pajamas Media tells us what most of the world is ignoring:

I mean the sudden arrest in London last week of of Damian Green, a Conservative MP and Shadow Minister for Immigration, who was seized by anti-terrorist personnel from the Metropolitan police, held for questioning for 9 hours, and whose private papers and computer files in his home and office in the House of Commons were confiscated. The Honorable Member's offense? Embarrassing Gordon Brown’s government. How did he do this? By revealing in debate on the floor of the House of Commons and in various lapses, failures, and dirty-little-secrets about the government’s immigration policy, e.g.,

* the fact that the home secretary knew that the Security Industry Authority had granted licences to 5,000 illegal workers, but decided not to publicise it.

* the fact that an illegal immigrant had been employed as a cleaner in the House of Commons.

* A whips' list of potential Labour rebels in the vote on plans to increase the pre-charge terror detention limit to 42 days.

In other words, Mr. Green was doing exactly what a member of the opposition should do: shedding light on the government's failures in order to make it more accountable to the public.