The police can be trusted ...

[Ian G Batten]

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> affairs of those they deal with. That said, the *responsible* official
> (almost certainly a lawyer) should have been both severly reprimanded and
> sacked from his job.

But, oddly, wasn't.  Nor did any minister accept any sort of
responsibility.  I presume that's because the people they put at risk
were poor, so didn't matter as much as millionaire record company owners
who have had their tax affairs leaked.

> Nevertheless, the confidentiality or lack of it afforded that enquiry's
> witness list (normally a document of public record?) has nowt to do with

No, it wasn't the enquiry's witness list, if you mean ``the witness list
of the McPherson inquiry''.  The disputed list was of the people who
spoke to the police inquiry into a murder with possible gangland
implications.  Is that really a matter of public record?  If so, remind
me to refuse to answer any question from any policeman.

> efficacy in the handling of classified or even privacy marked material.
> Apples & oranges, gentlemen, methinks.

I would have hoped that communications between ambassadors and the
government were private.  But not, obviously, when the government wishes
to leak them for their own purposes.

ian

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