Major problems with the government? Sleaze, expense corruption, police killing protesters in the capital?

Scapegoat an assistant with a security breach and get them to resign for something Terrorism related, guaranteed front pages. Get to arrest some more people too.

Or maybe it really was a terrorist mastermind at work, it's hard to cut through the waves of my own cynicsm these days..

gets to *resign*, no doubt with his lardy assed pension still totally intact.

Which is more than could be said for the rest of us if we cocked up for our employer so publicly.

Gits, the lot of em.

"It is believed - and police sources confirm - that this technology is available within the Met and to other government departments"

But do they have adequate awareness and training in how to use the technology? Obviously not.

Bang the lot of them up, it's the only way to be sure.

Security doesn't stop at the front door, presumably these numpties have folders full of secret docs left lying around on their desks for any non-cleared staff to peruse whenever they feel like it?

Wonder how hard it is to get a job as a cleaner at the met.......

It doesn't look like the person who produced that document knows how to protectively mark... (see http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2368613.ece for a closeup).

Who classified it as Secret? Shurely it should have been TS? Since I can't quote JSP440 (for obvious reasons) see wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classified_information_in_the_United_Kingdom#System_of_classification)

"Information marked as Top secret is that which whose release is liable to cause considerable loss of life, international diplomatic incidents, or severely impact ongoing intelligence operations"

... and I'd like to see the Protected Document Register please... was that "memo" checked out?

I guess they're just getting too lazy to find a train to leave documents on these days.

The timing of this (the terrorism arrests, not so much the fuck up) is a little, well, suspicious given all the money / expenses / thieving politician bastard things in the news at the moment.

Pretty much everyone I have spoken to agrees that this looks far more like Whacquie Jacquie trying to divert attention from her [and her party's] own troubles by arresting a group of dusky skinned blokes, presumably all with beards, in order to keep the rest of us safe.

However having armed police waving guns in crowded areas whilst trying to subdue extremely dangerous terrorist suspects* who one must assume have access to explosives (or they cannot be _that_ dangerous or terroristy) appears to be defeating the point of the whole "keeping the country safe" bit.

*if they are not at least labelled as extremely dangerous terrorist suspects then there is no point in this level of fuss, even if it turns out they are not then the government will still keep telling us that they are. Still, the government and filth need to act as if they believe that these people are dangerous. There is also a chance that they are actually dangerous people in which case arresting them in crowded universities etc. appears a bit cavalier to say the least.

I can't fault Bob Quick for doing the honourable thing quickly, honestly and therefore with some semblance of honour. Messed up, accepted he messed up and then resigned. Simple, honest and well, quick. I have more respect for Mr Quick than many other "public servants".

His is an example other public servants would do well to follow: You foul up, you resign. No hanging around, dragging things out. On your bike.

No comment I see on the fact that Getty Press immediately published the photo on their website. Just whe3re do tghe limits for the press lie? How far do they - and we - think they should be alloqwed tgo to obtain and publish sensitive information? Do they get a kick nout of aiding terrorists and disrupting counter-terrorism operations?

Wonder whats wrong with 'lessons learned' and 'drawing a line under it'?

unless he's got his eyes on doing a mandelson?

Police bring forward another high profile anti-terror operation just in time to divert media attention away from police thuggery at the G20 protests.... hmmm....

Will it amount to anything or will they just let them go after 28 days which is enough time for the media and public to have forgotten about it.?

lets see now, so in around 28 days there will be a minor notice, not given much air time as to how all the people arrested have been released without charge, or without any serious charge.

this will be blamed, if anyone asks, on the 'irresponsible' media and no further comment will be made. no detailed evidence of what this plot is will be made public, and the vague statements made will quickly be shown to be rubbish.

cynical? moi?

My feeling is that the plod didn't bother putting it in his brief case because it wasn't an important operation, it was just another propaganda exercise. Therefore Mr Plod wasn't thinking OMG we're all going to die, this document is really important; it was a case of swanning round to Downing Street to work out how to capitalize on the trashing of some gobby muslim kids houses.

Photographers aren't going to be flavour of the month though, anywhere..

BTW, anyone noticed that that sections of the court of public opinion (eg AC 11:40 GMT, there are others about the tubes as well) seem to have come up with a new offence of 'walking down the road with your hands in your pockets'? Are we supposed to throw our cameras to the ground, stick our hands up above our heads and retreat from their plodships presence by walking backwards and making obeisance? FFS the guy was compliant, he was walking away.

Good news for once.

"following his inadvertent public exposure of secret documents"

The word you were searching for was "negligent".

Judging by the Bob Quick's biography he is already well past the standard plod's retirement age, so I rather expect that he's going to be collecting his pension. He's also probably worked out that he isn't exactly going to be in favour with what's likely to be the next government.

It looks more like he is holding it so it can be seen.

Would he carry a copy of Penthouse in the same way?

It's been around for more than five years. It's well known that the US military can read car reg numbers from space and even swivel around to look into windows, record conversations and take fingerprints. Imagine what THEY can do from 15 feet!

Yep, and there's not even as much variation in wording as you get from viagra sellers. Those cops that complain about "too much paperwork" should be grateful that it's taught them how to use copy-paste.

"...To be fair - it's only in the last 5 years or so that ..."

Try watching 'Blow Up' (or 'Blowup') http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060176/

This was a dumb gaffe, watching the footage though, you can see he walked from his car to the door of number 10 and on the way covered up the papers. All in all they were visible for about five seconds. Plenty of time for a camera to take several high quality images and he should have known that, but it should be pointed out that he is not the only guilty party here. There would be much less danger from this, and similar incidents, if the press could be trusted. Let's not forget that this was on Downing street, the only people taking photos were the press who had press passes for that area. This would be embarrassing certainly, but not "dangerous", if the press could be trusted not to publish or even to blur-out the offending detail.

I'm not one to advocate putting the public at risk when making arrests, but at least people have a better chance to see how the police works. Not everything the police does should be public knowledge, at least immediately, but night-time operations and too much secrecy in the police should be avoided.

I agree with the conspiratorially-minded, the timing of these raids is suspicious and serve as a distraction from things like Ian Tomlinson's death. Bob Quick was probably for the chop anyway due to his previous errors, so either his timing was good or the 'gaffe' was deliberate. I personally think these 'terrorists' will be released without charge or charged with lesser offences. I don't think any explosives will be found either. If terrorists were going to attack why not coincide with the G20?