Brand new second hand

[webofevil]

A new broom! Time to restore public confidence after Tony’s tenure. And what better way to convince people of the value of politics and politicians than supporting legislation to exempt MPs from freedom of information laws? Even better, use arcane parliamentary procedures to push the scheme through, then claim it as a victory for democracy. That’ll have the cynics eating their words!

Comments

[strictlytrue.livejournal.com]

While I understand that the legislation could be used to hide information about MPs' expenses etc., I must confess it seems a bit rum that correspondence between MPs and individual constituents is currently subject to release under the FOIA.

I can think of several occasions where I've seen MPs refer to letters from constituents they definitely wouldn't want released to the wider public. Of course, it should have been possible to legislate just for that and not the expenses business.

[webofevil.livejournal.com]

> it should have been possible to legislate just for that and not the expenses business

Yes. Yes, it should.

[strictlytrue.livejournal.com]

Apparently, according to Nick Robinson's BBC blog, Ed Balls is tabling an amendment to do just this. I'll keep you posted.