Deep Dread

I approached the train station with a feeling of deep dread this morning. There were buses lined up outside the entrance and that can only mean one thing; "alternative road transport" was being offered. That only happens when some catastrophic disaster has hit the rail network, like mice on the line, or design fault with drivers' gloves discovered. This morning it was comprehensive signal failure. Actually I was lucky, or at least, not as unlucky as some. I managed to get a train running two hours late or something that took me where I wanted. I arrived 30 minutes late for work, but no one noticed. If I can't get home this evening, I'm suing.

I seem to have a cold. I've caught it from my son. We've all had it now. I don't feel too bad. I felt pretty grim yesterday.

I've been making soap. It's terribly exciting. You have to use dangerous chemicals. I don't know if it's worked yet. I've poured it into moulds to set. I can take it out of the moulds this evening, but it has to be left another four weeks before we can use it. I'll let you know how it goes.

My wife has been secretly making advent calendars. I knew she was up to something, but didn't know what. It's not the traditional open-a-window type, it's a 24-packets-hanging-on-a-Christmas-tree type. I feel a bit bad because she made one for me and one for the boy, but I didn't do anything for her, so I'll do something, but not sure what yet.

OK, boring political bit. Ignore this if you want:

Damian Green, shadow immigration minister has been arrested, his home and his offices have been raided and searched by anti-terrorist police, and he has been accused of "grooming" a civil servant who was leaking Home Office documents to him. He was held and questioned for nine hours, before being bailed without charge.

Has he done anything wrong? Well in real terms what happened was this; the Home Office was keeping quiet about some embarrassing news, like the fact that they knew of several thousand illegal immigrants employed as security guards, and that there was an illegal immigrant working as a cleaner in Whitehall. Green has a friend in the Home Office who quietly gave him this information, and Green told the public. Nothing leaked by Green or his accomplice was protected by the Official Secrets act. It was merely information that the government decided not to release because it was embarrassing. This kind of leaking is standard practice in Whitehall. It may not be pretty, but it's happened for centuries and it is a way of keeping government open. The PM himself has along history of publishing leaks for instance.

This story is now all over the news for several reasons. Firstly, the police, and especially anti-terror police, very rarely get involved in something as trivial as Whitehall leaks. Secondly, just about everyone outside the Home Office agrees that the information should have been released to the public anyway. Thirdly, and most importantly, it looks very much like the government orchestrated this police activity, which has led to accusations of a Police State.

The Home Office is now in very deep smeg indeed. Jacqui Smith has declared that she knew nothing of the arrest until after it happened. But no one believes her since both the London Mayor and the Conservative leader do seem to have known about it in advance. Within the government there are very few ministers willing to support Smith. Jack Straw, and Harriet Harman have both expressed some concern at the police activity, and the PM has said that the arrest of Mr Green had raised "difficult and sensitive issues".

Here's my prediction; it will be revealed this week that Jacqui Smith lied about not knowing of the arrest in advance, and she will lose her job.