Whistle Stop

Since my previous post about Bob Quick, another set of important government documents has unexpectedly turned up in the public domain. Culture Secretary Andy Burnham apparently left a set of files on a train, and they were eventually handed in by a public spirited citizen in Glasgow. Mr Burnham has apologised unreservedly, and there the matter rests.

Last year, Richard Jackson, a civil servant working in the Cabinet Office, left some papers on a train, which were a secret government assessment of the threat from Al Qaida, and they were also recovered and handed in. He was fined £2000 and demoted three pay grades.

So far, Andy Burnham has not resigned, in the same way that Caroline Flint and Hazel Blears have not resigned for swanning about in Downing Street carrying confidential documents in view of cameras. For which same misdemeanour, Bob Quick resigned.

Ironically, of course, as predicted, those arrested in the dramatically named operation which Bob Quick allegedly partially “blew” have been quietly released without charge, though they are expected to be deported. This of course raises a few (unanswered, nay, even unasked as yet, by any media that I have seen) questions about just how important this operation was in the first place, that Bob Quick paid with his job for having “compromised”.

Other whistleblowers have also come to recent grief. Margaret Haywood, aged 58, a nurse for over 20 years, was struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council for allowing secret filming to be done by BBC’s Panorama, in an attempt to expose what she thought were serious shortcomings in the care of elderly patients. Haywood told a hearing of the Nursing and Midwifery Council in central London: "I was convinced that it was the right thing to do. I had reported the issues and nothing had been done. I felt I owed it to the people on the ward."

Similarly, the civil servant Christopher Galley, who was the “mole” who was “groomed” (I use the word advisedly) by Shadow Home Secretary Damian Green in the Home Office to pass potentially embarrassing details to the Tories, has been sacked. Damian Green is still the Shadow Home Secretary.

So, what are we to make of it, this whistleblowing? It’s a dodgy business, obviously. If you leak something that didn’t oughter be leaked, especially something that embarrasses the great and the good, and you are in paid employment – watch out! You’re likely to lose your job, even if you are Bob Quick. On the other hand, if you are a member of the political classes, be it the government or Her Majesty’s loyal opposition, then it’s business as usual. You can flash confidential files in public, leave them on a train, and groom as many moles as you can dig up, without any fear of censure.

Just another indication, if one were needed, of the way these people think they are immune and simply not subject to the same strictures as the rest of us.