Tuesday, May 22, 2007
  22/05/07 – IS THIS THE SWIFTEST RENEGED PROMISE IN POLITICAL HISTORY?
Less than 24 hours, after Gordon Brown has pledged to restore faith in politicians he has remained neutral (and therefore is tacitly supporting the bill). The bill which is to amend the Freedom of Information act is supposedly to protect the correspondence of MPs on confidential matters and protect communication too MPs ensuring the privacy of the constituents on sensitive matters. The fact that the bill would also prevent newspapers and interested parties from requesting detailed break downs of MPs expenses, which has been highly embarrassing for some members after they faced impropriety allegations with relation to seemingly disproportionately high expenses claims in regard to postage and travel expenses etc… does not enter into the equation, apparently.

So weeks before he has taken office the heir to the prime ministers office has already broken one of his promises, and his reasoning, "Gordon has also spoken about the sovereignty of Parliament. If MPs have voted this measure through then that is a matter for them", (Take a deep breath in, count back from ten before you respond: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, I can’t take it) HE IS AN MP! HE HAS THE RIGHT TO AN OPINION, HIS IS NOT ABOVE PARLIAMENT AND THEREFORE CAN DEBATE WITH, AND IN, PARLIAMENT!

So with government support, (well to be accurate) without government opposition, this bill is likely to come into force preventing us constituents from keeping checks upon our representatives, so much for open politics, so much for restoring faith in politicians, as they protect their under-the-table dealings and abuse of public fund in law. (why else would they seek to remove this information from the public domain if it was legitimate reimbursement of expenses? Surely they would hold it up and say ‘look how much work I have done, I work harder than any other MP and am worth re-election because I listen to and represent you’.)

The one thing that I can’t understand (which also leads me to think that they are only concerned with skimming the cream off the public purse) is why if this bill is solely to protect correspondence, is it not abbreviated to omit correspondence to and from MPs rather than to omit the Houses of Parliament completely and it their entirety from the freedom of information act?

So much for democratic accountability.
  8:38 PM
Comments: Post a Comment

Links to this post:

Create a Link



<< Home