Embarrassing the powers-that-be

Sadly, no whistle-blower tipped me off that Damian Green MP was about to be arrested by anti-terrorist police.
Nine officers were involved in the arrest of Mr Green, a few hours after my Editor’s Comment appeared in November 27's Mid Somerset Series.
I wrote: "We need whistle-blowers to draw attention to official failures and wrongdoing, now more than ever" because big organisations ban employees from speaking to the media.
No organisation in Britain is bigger than the Government and few are keener to keep embarrassing failures under the carpet.
One such failure was the Home Office clearing thousands of illegal immigrants for work in Whitehall security jobs, which was publicised by Mr Green in his role as a shadow immigration spokesman.
This was one of several revelations passed by a concerned employee at the Home Office to Mr Green, who used them to criticise the Government.
Mr Green is a Conservative but this issue transcends party politics.
Gordon Brown may dislike such leaking of embarrassing facts now, but he was adept at it when the Tories were in power. As were his predecessors Tony Blair, John Major and Margaret Thatcher.
Leaking has a history at least as long as politics. Every party has leaked information and this serves a valuable function.
The crowing that can accompany a juicy leak may be distasteful, but the public has a right to know when their tax money has been badly spent, especially if the powers-that-be want to avoid looking foolish.
Philip Welch