Source: Scotland On Sunday Authors: Iain Martin, Political Editor and Dani Garavelli Contact: Pubdate: Sun, 4 Jan 1998 A FACE SAVING FARCE How The Home Secretary Turned Potential Disaster Into Political Advantage By Sharing His Secret A cabinet minister's festive break is supposed to be one of only two times in the year, Christmas and summer holiday, when he or she can truly get away from the cares of office. And Jack Straw was planning a textbook family Christmas to round off his most successful year in politics to date. Unfortunately, for the government and the Straw household, he had not reckoned on the intervention of the Mirror on Christmas Eve. But this morning as Straw contemplates his turbulent week he can reflect on an extraordinary recovery. When Mirror reporter Dawn Alford was arrested for her part in the alleged drugs scandal involving his son Will, it looked as though the story had taken a nasty turn for the Home Secretary. Newspapers were agitating to name him, and suspicions of a cover-up were being voiced. But with a series of bold moves he extricated himself and the government from potential humiliation. His decision to ring the editor of the Sun in his office at Wapping on Wednesday now looks to have shifted events back in Straw's favour. He wanted to talk and felt frustrated that he couldn't tell his side of the story, he told Stuart Higgins. The Sun, now living in the post-Diana age of tabloid fear of the Press Complaints Commission, lapped up his comments and quoted him anonymously in its interview. It was a ove which invited Scottish newspapers, not beholden to legal restrictions in place south of the Border, to name him as the cabinet minister with a 17-year-old son accused of drug dealing. That done, the Sun could launch its appeal in the High Court against the injunction preventing similar coverage in England. On Friday evening in the Home Office, Whitehall, Straw got his wish: a chance to present himself as a concerned father and a politician in favour of coming clean. It was a perfect escape route, but it could have been so different. This weekend politicians in other parties are expressing their sympathies with Straw. It had been thought that his hard-line stance on drugs policy would now look ridiculous - and some more excitable Conservative MPs may try to mention it in perpetuity. But Straw's game-plan is the ultimate Blairite tactic: turn weakness into strength. Now whenever the Home Secretary faces accusations that he is hypocritical in taking a firm stance against drugs and poor parenting he will say that the episode has given him valuable experience of the problems so many famiiles now face. It is a deft turnaround which looked unlikely when a fading issue - made difficult to report by an injunction banning the naming of the Straw family - - was revived with the arrest of Dawn Alford on Monday. The instigation of criminal proceedings against an undercover reporter working to expose a possible crime provoked outrage, both in the media and among opposition MPs who suspected the government of putting pressure on the Metropolitan police force. Initially, most newspapers had seemed content to protect 17-year-old William Straw's identity in line with the Press Complaints Commission's code of conduct which states that the publication of information concerning a minor is not justified by the celebrity of their parents. But when their liberty to carry out investigations appeared threatened, and their right to report on a matter of public interest was questioned, the editors dug in their heels. As Jack Straw's identity became widely known at Westminster, in Whitehall, and even across the country, the situation descended into farce and publication of his name became inevitable. On Monday, Alford, who allegedly bought 10 UKP of cannabis from the teenager nick-named "Whizz" in a pub, went along to a London police station with the head of the newspaper's legal department to make a statement and to hand over the cannabis, which had previously been sent to a laboratory for analysis. But the newspaper claims the tone of the interview gradually began to change as Alford was asked why she had not handed the drug back earlier and told she could have committed a criminal offence. Officers contacted the Crown Prosecution Office and, minutes later, she was arrested. After declining to answer further questions under caution, she was released on police bail until February 5. The following day, Mirror editor Piers Morgan lambasted the decision as "an affront to investigative journalism" and urged the Home Secretary to launch an inquiry into how this "farcical situation" had arisen. His stance was echoed by shadow home secretary Brian Malwhinney who wrote to the Metropolitan police and the director of public prosecutions, Dame Barbara Mills, demanding to know who was responsible for the decision and suggesting Alford's arrest had come as a result of political pressure from the government. The accusation was later denied by the Acting Commissioner Sir Brian Hayes and by Straw himself. Debate continued to rage over whether or not newspapers could legally and ethically name the teenager, with experts divided. Chairman of the Press Complaints Commission Lord Wakeham warned that to do so would be in breach of the industry's code of conduct. But there was a growing feeling that Straw's role as Home Secretary and, in particular, his tough stance on drugs and parental responsibility was in itself justification. His identity had been common currency among MPs and political commentators from the day the Mirror broke the story on Christmas Eve. The appearance of Jack Straw's photograph above every article on the affair sign-posted the connection for shrewd readers, while, by Tuesday, those internet subscribers interested enough to check it out could find his name on its discussion pages. Legally, it was argued, there was nothing to stop newspapers also naming the boy as the section of the 1933 Children and Young Persons Act which provides protection to minors does not come into force until charges have been laid. In addition, whereas in England anyone under 18 is a juvenile, under Scotland's legal system the age limit is only 16. But still, there was the PCC to contend with. On Tuesday, the Sun decided to test the law. Editor Stuart Higgins phoned Straw's office and told him they were going to name the Home Secretary the following day. Realising that the government was losing control of the situation, the Attorney General, John Morris QC, successfully applied to the High Court for an injunction. Number 10 was also deeply concerned about the unfolding drama. Blair's press secretary Alastair Campbell realised that any counter-attack by spin-doctors such as himself would merely give the impression of a cover-up. Instead he largely avoided talking about it but, when pressed, the former tabloid journalist told editors and political reporters on the quiet that Straw really wanted to talk but legal problems had made the situation difficult. At this stage, Higgins accepted the court's decision, but criticised the system which tied his hands, adding caustically that there should be prizes for anyone in Britain who was not yet aware of the identity of the minister involved. Then Straw, picking up on the mounting sense of irritation in Britain's newsrooms, moved to turn it back in his favour. He presented a picture of himself as a man willing to be identified, but hamstrung by the vagaries of the legal system. In anonymous interviews printed on Thursday with the Sun and the Mirror, he talked of his "frustration" at not being able to discuss the issue openly. "I am not the sort of person who normally avoids confronting issues like this publicly," he said. He made no move to stop the Scottish press publishing his name and the Scottish Daily Mail, The Scotsman and the Daily Record finally confirmed the Home Secretary as the minister involved in the affair on their front pages on Friday. All three newspapers claimed they were acting in the public interest to end a farce which threatened the freedom of speech and democracy. A tidal wave was under way. He was named in the Dublin-based Irish Independent and the French newspaper France-Soir, which is widely available on London news-stands. By mid-morning on Friday, most other Scottish media organisations had jumped on the bandwagon, with Straw named in the evening papers in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Commercial radio stations took the same stance, although the BBC maintained its silence. Weight was lent almost immediately to the newspapers' decision as it emerged the seven-day police investigation into the drugs allegations had concluded that no action should be taken against the teenager involved on the grounds of the small amount of cannabis involved, his youth, discrepancies between his stories and Alford's. Although a final decision from the Crown Prosecution Service is not expected until next week, it seems likely the case will never be aired in a courtroom, making the issue of possible prejudice largely irrelevant. Capitalising on the clamour for information and growing concern about the legal anomolies which made piece-meal publication possible, the Sun decided to appeal against the High Court's decision to issue an injunction. It won. At last the floodgates could open in English newspapers and on television. But Straw had done enough to deflect the potential scandal such that when Will Straw was photographed in the family's London home it had transformed into a tale of one family's complex problem. Perhaps readers had expected Will Straw to be the cliched image of a drug- dealer, but in his black T-shirt, earring, cropped hair and trainers he looked like so many other people's children. The message was: if this happens to a successful, middle-class family like the Straws, it could happen to you. But still, the father in this case is in charge of government policy on drugs. The clamour for legalisation of cannabis from the liberal press and campaigners is set to grow. The Home Secretary may have rescued his personal standing - as responsible father and competent minister - but he has helped give the legalisation lobby their best public relations coup in years. As they move, inevitably, to exploit a weakness in the government's case they will be able to tell the public: smoking cannabis isn't unusual - even the Home Secretary's son allegedly does it.