From the current edition of Private Eye:
"Despite complaints about "Gestapo-like" tactics purused by police investigating the cash-for-honours affair, it seems that the trio arrested by Inspector Knacker - Lord Levy, Ruth Turner and Sir Christopher Evans - may have been treated more favourably than most suspected villains.
For the past three years police have routinely taken DNA samples from people they arrest and added them to the national database, even if they are completely innocent. When the Eye phoned Scotland Yard to confirm that the cash-for-honours trio had indeed been treated like most other suspects, a spokeswoman said: "Taking DNA does not happen in every case."
We also asked Lord Levy's office, Tony's Blair [sic] new office (where Ms Turner now works) and Sir Christopher's office at his Merlin Boisciences company. Raply came there none."
As you may remember, Tony Blair and the then Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt were also questioned, but I would bet that the same policy exception will have been extended to them too.
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Posted by FishNChipPapers on August 02, 2007 at 02:23 PM GMT+00:00 #
I'm not saying that running for public office (or being a billionaire judge on a TV no-talent contest) should lay you open to cyber-stalking, but the wide range of justifications for 'masking' or exclusion of certain people's records suggests to me that the underlying assumptions about anonymity, privacy and national identity need fundamental review.
Posted by Robin Wilton on August 02, 2007 at 03:26 PM GMT+00:00 #