Mr Martin's statement exposed his shocking negligence, says a Telegraph Leader. He was told that an MP might be arrested, and that a search of his office might take place. Speaker Martin, the "chief officer and highest authority of the House of Commons", then appears to have sat back and allowed events to take their course. According to his own account, he posed no questions and sought no counsel. He says he was not told there was no police warrant. Could that be because he did not ask? Mr Martin's position must surely now be untenable.   Leader Daily Telegraph
Full article: Shocking negligence in the Damian Green affair
The Mole: Police chief accuses Speaker in explosive letter to Jacqui Smith

Mr Brown is an ardent parliamentarian who defended the Freedom of Information Act against many opponents and devoted one of his most passionate speeches to liberty and constitutional changes, says Mary Riddell. British liberty was, he said, our "gift to the world". While yesterday's Queen's Speech contained a modest draft Constitutional Renewal Bill, strengthening the power of Parliament, there was no sign of the revolution Mr Brown announced as his founding initiative. He should get moving on a Bill of Rights: it would call the Opposition's bluff on the Human Rights Act. As Greengate shows, a written constitution and a robust Bill of Rights are not luxuries for the good times. Mary Riddell Daily Telegraph
Full article: PC Plod should have been given the Black Rod treatment

A written constitution for this disgracefully malgoverned country is essential, says Matthew Norman. The lack of one weakens and poisons every aspect of government, and specifically enables such idiocies as Mr Green's arrest. Under a written constitution, procedure for cases involving the sovereignty of parliament and the right to leak in the perceived national interest would be written. It could be Gordon's legacy. Highly unlikely to win a general election, he has 18 months to leave behind something more lustrous than the financial calamity he did so much to inflate by which to remember him: a written constitution stuffed with checks and balances to prevent criminal military adventurism and oppressive misapplication of law. Matthew Norman The Independent
Full article: A written constitution is the answer

A year ago, candidate Johnson seemed too posh, too daft and too much of the cartoon right to become London's mayor, says Dave Hill. Today, his opponents may find him a more elusive target than they'd hoped. Most intriguing of all, Johnson's gut economic liberalism is being complemented by his own version of its social counterpart. Johnson has gone strikingly further, in supporting the London Living Wage and in commissioning a study into the effects of granting earned amnesties to long-term illegal immigrants. His strategies on culture and equalities are similar in disdaining the identity politics that emerged from those civil rights campaigns. Yet they emphasise widening access and encouraging participation.      Dave Hill The Guardian
Full article: Mayor Boris, the liberal

Due to his Kenyan heritage, the set of preconceptions about Britain that Mr Obama brings to the White House will be far removed from those of recent presidents, says Ben Macintyre. His memoir depicts us as ill-dressed, pasty-faced and racially arrogant, cramped, spotty and joyless. When he hears an English accent, I suspect, the new president will not automatically think of Churchill, Benny Hill or Princess Diana, but rather of some nameless British colonial officer, gazing out on an Africa he believed he owned: for that is where Obama is coming from.  Ben Macintyre The Times
Full article: Arrogant and joyless: Obama's take on Britain?
Alexander Cockburn: Barack Obama loses his base with rightward drift