Eddie Barnes - The leak, the Speaker, and a hunch from Tam

Speaker Michael Martin will be a busy man today as he drafts his statement on the arrest of Conservative frontbencher Damien Green, expected tomorrow. He is under huge pressure to show that parliament will stand up to the government and the police following the episode. I have a hunch that he might use the occasion not just to defend the decision to allow police to search Mr Green's parliamentary offices, but also to lay down a few markers for MPs on how they should behave in future.

This is based on a conversation I had over the weekend with the former Father of the House Tam Dalyell. Tam - who, I am glad to report, is in fine fettle- has been much sought after for his views on the Green arrest since he too was the recipient of a famous leak, nearly thirty years ago, over the sinking of the General Belgrano during the Falklands war. The leak came in the form of a hand-written postcard, sent to his office by MoD civil servant Clive Ponting, which revealed that the Argentine Navy Cruiser was sailing away from the Falklands and was outside the exclusion zone surrounding the islands when it was sunk by the British sub HMS Conqueror.

Now Tam, as he reminded me, is and was a stickler for procedure. So the idea of punting the explosive contents of this postcard in the direction of the Daily Blatt didn't cross his mind. Rather, he handed it over to the relevant House of Commons Select Committee in the expectation that they would bring the MoD to book (they didn't, but that's another story).

I wonder whether Speaker Martin - a good friend of Tam's - will suggest this to MPs tomorrow as the kind of action they should take in future when in receipt of such leaks? He does after all have motive; mocked as "Gorbals Mick" by what he considers to be a snobbish Westminster press pack, he might be particularly taken with an edict which cuts off a few juicy exclusives to the Fourth Estate. The message to MPs would be thus: publicise leaks on the floor of the house or in committee and you'll get my support, but do it via your favourite newspaper, and you'll end up in the nick.

I should add this is just a hunch: one thing Mr Martin is not doing today is leaking the details of his statement to the press. But I wouldn't be at all surprised to watch the Speaker use this crucial statement tomorrow to aim a sharp dig against the media.

We'll see tomorrow.