Local Tories welcome Damian Green to Annual Dinner

Local Conservatives last week welcomed the Shadow Immigration Minister, Damian Green MP, to their Annual Dinner.

The dinner, which was attended by over 70 members and guests, was held at the River Valley Golf Club in Upchurch.

In his after dinner speech, Mr Green told diners about his experience when he was arrested last year after releasing Home office documents that were leaked to him by a civil servant, Christopher Galley.

When Mr Green was arrested the Government said that it was because publication of the documents was a threat to national security, however, last month an official inquiry into the case determined that Scotland Yard's arrest of the Tory MP was ill-advised and based on Home Office leaks which, while embarrassing to the government, were not a threat to national security.

Mr Green used his own experience to highlight the steady erosion of civil liberties in Britain over the past decade. Other examples he quoted were the way in which the police are able to retain of file the DNA of suspects who are eventually proven innocent and the creation of the Independent Safeguarding Body which makes it obligatory for anybody who wishes to work with children under the age of 16 to obtain a license costing £62. This includes employers who want to give school children work experience.

Mr Green promised that Conservatives were determined to end the present government’s practice of treating children like adults and adults like children.