Openness, transparency, and accountability. These three values underpin the public service ethos, they are the foundation of good government and a healthy democracy. As a taxpayer you have a right to know and to question how your money is being spent. However, your ability to question is being slowly eroded piece by piece as our public […]
Posts Tagged ‘Freedom of Information’
Ending the secrecy that shrouds the sell off of the NHS
Sep 4th, 2014 by Grahame Morris.The arguments about the fragmentation and privatisation of NHS services are well rehearsed. The public know the reorganisation wasted £3 billion and vital resources which should have been spent on frontline services and patients, but what has often gone unnoticed is the democratic deficit and the erosion of our rights to question those who run public […]
Whistleblowers v Big State and Big Tech: we still need Davids to bring down Goliath
Jun 11th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.There are several huge lessons that flow from this latest explosive story about the comprehensive range of the modern surveillance State. First, if we are ever going to know what is really going on behind the scenes and what government is getting up to, we are entirely dependent on the morality and courage of a […]
Freedom of information: Blair’s hostility shows how important it is
Aug 1st, 2012 by Michael Meacher.Blair’s failure to co-operate with the Parliamentary select committee investigating the effectiveness of the Freedom of Infomation Act (FOI) shows just how important it is and why it now needs to be strengthened and extended. What he’s afraid of is, of course, how much more it will reveal of the unsavoury background to his autocratic […]