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Should MP's be bugged?
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
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So should MP's be exempt from being bugged by the security services under the Wilson doctrine ?
After all members of the devolved Parliaments and EU members can be bugged, so why should Westminster MP's be the only ones who cant be bugged?
My opinion is that MP's should be fair game like the rest of us. I very much doubt the security services are interested in MP's and their constituents talking about noisy neighbours or street lighting. The bugging of anyone should only be done in serious cases, where a serious crime has been or is likely to be committed. Any type of bugging should always be signed off by a senior police officer.
MP's might just have to accept they aren't immune, nor should they be.
Thoughts ?
So should MP's be exempt from being bugged by the security services under the Wilson doctrine ?
After all members of the devolved Parliaments and EU members can be bugged, so why should Westminster MP's be the only ones who cant be bugged?
My opinion is that MP's should be fair game like the rest of us. I very much doubt the security services are interested in MP's and their constituents talking about noisy neighbours or street lighting. The bugging of anyone should only be done in serious cases, where a serious crime has been or is likely to be committed. Any type of bugging should always be signed off by a senior police officer.
MP's might just have to accept they aren't immune, nor should they be.
Thoughts ?
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Comments
No they shouldnt be totally exempt - but prisoners talking to their solicitors should be and there are allegations they were caught up in this too.
Why should prisoners and their solicitors be exempt, but not MPs and their constituents?
Because prisoners and solicitors have proven themselves to be more trustworthy.
Because you should have the right to private counsel, it helps you get a fair trial which to my mind is one of those things which is rather important.
Though I suppose if you could prove there was a criminal conspiracy between them and they were just using the talks as a cover then with a senior judges approval I wouldnt completely object. But I'd want high hurdles for the police to jump through.
Because the right to confidential counsel is vital to the right to a fair trial.
I think it is disgusting and Ian Blair should be made to pay for this- financially and with his freedom.
Bankrupt the hypocrite and then imprison him for 20 years:)
I think the interesting bit of this story isn't whether they should be immune - but that they've always believed and been told they were. It may turn out that it isn't just this government that has been playing by different rules but that the Wilson Doctrine itself was a con from the start.
If it wasn't I wonder who changed the law but continued to let MPs think they couldn't be bugged?
No change is law would be neccessary (and would be impossible without MPs voting on it). Its a convention and theoretically MPs have always had the same rights under the law as the rest of us.
that said my understaning of the story is that this was a bugging of a prison cell (which doesn't need any political approval) and that Ministers weren't told.
That said I see no reason why an MP should be immune because he was an MP. I'd bloody well hope that if an MP was involved in serious crime or treason that his phone would be bugged...
IAnd forgive me if I am wrong but wasn't it the person the MP was talking to that was being bugged - with the MP just one of the visitors?
Oh, and finally, isn't it entirely feasible that an MP could be part of any "terror ring" and therefore why should he/she be exempt because he is an MP?
hmm all bugging/tapping (different methods, same effect) should have to be authorised by someone, not just ordered by someone as is the case here in the police ordering a bugging to be done, without any judical clearance or plans to get get delayed clearance if it had to be done in an emergency
MP + constituents talking shouldn't be bugged, much like laywers + clients