It has been revealed that two elected Green politicians, neither of whom possesses a criminal record, have been under surveilleance for years – by Scotland Yard’s domestic extremism unit. The Green Party has rushed to condemn the police for monitoring the activities of Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb, the Green peer and the Party’s candidate for mayor of London at the last election, and Ian Driver, a councillor in Thanet which, the Party, claimed was an unjustified and unjustifiable infringement of civil liberties. The Party has asked the Met to let all its politicians know if they were similarly under surveillance or not, and it has also asked to see the Home Secretary to discuss the matter.
News of the surveillance, which came to light after Green Party requests made under data protection rules, emerged a matter of months after it was revealed that “undercover” police officers were infiltrating campaigning organisations.
The police file on Baroness Jones reveals that the police have collected her tweets about possible police tactics at a pro-cycling rally and details of public meetings she addressed on the subject of police violence. This is bound to raise questions over whether the police are genuinely trying to stop Ms Jones and her bicycle bringing down western democracy or whether they are using their power to curtail criticism of what they are doing.