Secrets
Sir: It may be instructive that the only legislative example offered by Anthony Barnett ('Why Britain is no democracy', 17 December) to support his Charter 88 de- mand for a written constitution is miscon- ceived. He writes of the Government's decision to change the law on official secrets to 'disallow any appeal to the national interest by a civil servant who, for example, informs an MP of a wrongdoing, even in the Ministry of Defence'. There is no such proposal before Parliament. First, as far as members of the security and intelligence services are concerned, no change in the law is proposed in this respect. Secondly, someone in the Ministry of Defence disclosing defence records would under the Official Secrets Bill be able for the first time to argue that the disclosure did not cause harm to the national interest as defined in the Bill and the prosecution would have to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that it did. The jury would decide.
William Powell
House of Commons, London SW1
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