Friday, December 31, 2004
So, with the new Freedom of Information Act, what are the Government going to do? The Guardian have applied to see Lord Goldsmith's recommendations about the legality of the UK supporting the US's transformation of Iraq into a lightly steaming crater. The FoI Commissioner may decide it's not in the public interest to release those files. This would mean that FoI is a joke. The FoI Commissioner may decide it is in the public interest to release those files and the Government might use their veto to override him. This would mean that the FoI Commissioner is a joke. Or, though it would be extremely unlikely, the files get released. They'd be unlikely to have anything that dangerous in them as they are written by a lawyer, but the Government sitting on them for so long would make them look like a joke. Well, more of a joke.
Personally, I'm voting for option one, after Hutton and Butler we really shouldn't expect part of the establishment to turn against it and it's already fairly well known that the FoI act is pretty useless except perhaps for those at a local level who are campaigning against a development or something similar.
Personally, I'm voting for option one, after Hutton and Butler we really shouldn't expect part of the establishment to turn against it and it's already fairly well known that the FoI act is pretty useless except perhaps for those at a local level who are campaigning against a development or something similar.
