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As I said originally, I am not asking about the alleged leak, although I see somebody has cleared that up for you now. A bible is an inanimate object, as is a flag. Nobody is really hurt if you lie on oath to either, except the truth. Islamic and Christian countries get very irate about such things, which just makes them easier targets.
By swearing on a living or dead person, I believe (as others have said) that you are trying to use emotion to hide your own deception. in my own head,however, I still hear "I would throw my family under a bus to protect myself" and that is not a position that commands my respect. I wonder how his family feel about it, particularly if he is later shown to have lied?
Incidentally, I suspect it was a calculated gamble. He has lost his job on the 'balance of probabilities', not 'beyond reasonable doubt', and he knows it I should not in the national interest to compromise intelligence information further still just to get a token criminal conviction against him. I hope, however, that his constituents are emboldened by the Peterborough experience. If he would sacrifice his children, how low does he rate his voters?