Article: Tweaking tails
May 26, 2008 Articles, FOI in Parliament, FOI in the news
From The Sunday Times, May 25, 2008
Tweaking tails: the battle to reveal MPs’ expenses
By Heather Brooke
Here I am opening up another box of delights. It’s about 15 years since I last rifled through a politicians’ expenses. The first time, I was a young reporter in Washington state: I simply walked into the clerk’s office of [...]
Picking up the boxes
May 23, 2008 Campaigns, FOI in Parliament, FOI in the news
I picked up my boxes today at 1pm and have spent all day looking through them. Lots to say but I’m just too tired to write about it now! The information was released to the public this afternoon.
Channel 4 caught the action as I picked up my boxes. You can watch the report here.
So far [...]
Police PR Spending
May 23, 2008 Articles, Freedom of Information, Law Enforcement
A three-month project by James Ball and I using the Freedom of Information Act to examine police spending on public relations, press offices and marketing concluded with two pieces in today’s Times:
Long arm of police spin-doctors costs almost £40m a year
Tough on crime – or on the image of crime?
We found that police forces across [...]
Meet the redhead…
May 20, 2008 Campaigns, Central Government, FOI in Parliament, FOI in the news
The Members’ Estimate Committee (aka Speaker Michael Martin) met last night and decided they would not appeal last Friday’s High Court ruling that MPs must disclose details of their second homes allowance. This means that I should be getting a whole load of receipts and claims no later than 4pm Friday (23 May 2008). Who [...]
“Shield and Sword of the Party”
May 20, 2008 Freedom of Information
The Times reports on how the Home Office is determined to transform itself into the Ministry of State Security by snooping and recording every possible form of electronic communication you make:
‘Big Brother’ database for phones and e-mails
Such a system worked so well in East Germany, of course – it ensured that pretty much anybody who [...]
Times coverage of hearing
May 16, 2008 Campaigns, FOI in Parliament, FOI in the news, Freedom of Information
The Times seems to have the most comprehensive coverage of today’s hearing so I’ve posted it here:
House of Commons loses its High Court appeal
Sam Coates, Chief Political Correspondent
Parliament’s attempts to block the disclosure of MPs’ second-home expenses have been thrown out by the High Court in a damning judgment which dismissed the Speaker’s case [...]
Victory is mine!
May 16, 2008 Campaigns, FOI in Parliament, Freedom of Information
Today was the big day and again I’ve won a complete and total victory in my campaign to make MPs directly accountable to citizens.
In their judgment handed down today at the High Court, the judges agreed with an earlier Information Tribunal ruling which criticised the Additional Costs Allowance system as ‘deeply unsatisfactory’ . The [...]
A day of judgment
May 15, 2008 Campaigns, Central Government, FOI in Parliament
The High Court judges will tomorrow hand down their judgment in my case for the details of MPs’ second homes allowances. I know the result already but must keep quiet until publication. Yes, I know, another silliness of the English legal system, but that’s how it is.
The judgment will be handed down Friday 15 [...]
CCTV – billions of pounds of failure
May 6, 2008 Law Enforcement
Even the police now admit that CCTV is a complete waste of money.
This quote from Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville of the Metropolitan Police says it all:
“CCTV was originally seen as a preventative measure. Billions of pounds has been spent on kit, but no thought has gone into how the police are going to [...]
