More Organised Vengence?

THIS last weekend the Met have been after a court order under the Official Secrets Act to try to make Guardian reporters disclose their sources about the phone hacking scandal. Scotland Yard claims the Act could have been breached last July, when Guardian reporters Nick Davies and Amelia Hill exposed the hacking of murder victim Milly Dowler's mobile phone by an investigator acting for the News of the World.

It seems that the police plonkers in London who failed to pursue the News of the World are now reaching for the Official Secrets Act to deal with the journalists who showed them all up. Geoffrey Robertson QC writes in last Saturday's Guardian: 'That coverage has exposed not only the hackers but also the incompetence of the police, and it is no doubt for that reason that Scotland Yard is overzealous in its attempts to uncover the sources.'

The Guardian in an editorial argues: 'It beggars belief that the Metropolitan police - who, for years, declined to lift a finger against News International journalists despite voluminous evidence of criminal behaviour - should now be using the Official secrets Act to pursue the Guardian, which uncovered the story.'

Perhaps the Guardian should follow News International's example and get agate employing a few retired coppers from the Met. as staff columnists. That might help to keep Scotland Yard off their backs.