"Wilson Doctrine" - has the Home Secretary tacitly admitted to requests for the tapping of MPs phones ?
Does this Parliamentary Answer to a Question, along the lines which we have been asking, put by the Liberal Democrat MP for Twickenham, Dr. Vincent Cable, constitute a "no smoke without fire" admission about the "Wilson Doctrine" ?
6 Feb 2006 : Column 944WInterception of Communications
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many requests have been received by his Department for the electronic interception of (a) telephones, (b) emails and (c) other electronic communications between July and December 2005; and how many requests his Department has received for details of the communications traffic data of hon. Members in this period. [47558]
Mr. Charles Clarke: The available information is published annually in the report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner. Figures for 2005 will be included in the Commissioner's next report.
Has the Home Office / Charles Clarke deliberately or incompetently missed that this question relates, not to the general public, but specifically to Members of Parliament, under the "Wilson Doctrine" ?
Or is this a tacit confirmation that MPs phones have been tapped, or at least that there have been requests for phone taps and/or email interceptions or for Communications Traffic Data requests etc., since last July ?
N.B. The last report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner Sir Swinton Thomas, last July 2005 , made no mention of the issue whatsoever, yet by December, Sir Swinton was writing to the Prime Minister regarding the need to review the "Wilson Doctrine".
What assurance is there that there has not been a "Vodafone Greece" type compromise of MP's or the general public's phones ? After all, identical Ericsson telecommunications hardware and software is installed in the UK mobile phone network.