Article: Where is the UK version of The Wire?
Feb 28, 2009 Articles, Law Enforcement
Us & Them
The Big Issue, February 2009
By Heather Brooke
Not one to believe hype, I was sceptical when I popped in the first series of the much-acclaimed TV series The Wire. For those who haven’t seen it, this is a series that breaks all the rules of TV drama and yet the hype is merited: it [...]
Investigation into Police Chief Bonuses
Feb 13, 2009 Articles, Campaigns, Freedom of Information, Law Enforcement
I worked with the Times Crime Editor Sean O’Neill on an investigation into police chief constables’ bonus schemes. The first part of this investigation was published on 24 January 2009.
Police chiefs net thousands from secret bonus scheme
A secretive bonus scheme set up to reward the country’s top 300 police officers is paying out hundreds [...]
Article: Police Bonuses
Feb 13, 2009 Articles, Law Enforcement
From The Times, 24 January 2009
What have they got to hide?
By Heather Brooke
Investigation is a little like psychiatry where the most telling details are often those kept hidden. When only one police force is willing to tell the public what it pays its Chief Constable in bonuses curiosity is piqued. What do they have to [...]
Article: On the inauguration of Obama
Feb 13, 2009 Freedom of Information
Obama-style activism in Britain
The Big Issue, January 2009
By Heather Brooke
Are British people disengaged with politics? I don’t think so. It’s simply that the man in the street is relatively impotent in the British political system, whereas in the US, where politics is much more open and competitive, politicians must be responsive to the electorate or [...]
As the economy recedes, the pressure for FOI should grow
Feb 13, 2009 Freedom of Information
A couple of weeks ago, Lord Digby Jones said the Civil Service could function on half the staff and today, a report from the Taxpayers’ Alliance has drawn attention to massive nationwide growth of the remuneration packages council middle management receive.
The TPA report, which contains figures for every council in the country, can be read [...]
The end of the argument about expenses? I have my snouts.
Feb 13, 2009 Freedom of Information
You might have thought the expenses row was over when the highest court in the land ordered MPs to reveal them (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7404031.stm). But it wasn’t.
The problem is that when MPs can bring themselves to agree about something the law is a very vulnerable thing. And that’s why, in spite of Wednesday’s climbdown, the [...]
