A link from a national heroine

It's not often that one gets a blog link from someone currently being hailed as a national heroine. In my case, it's Heather Brooke, the freedom of information campaigner who has, more than anyone, been responsible for getting the details of MPs' expenses out into the open.

Heather picked up on my posting about Michael Martin's use of the s34 exemption to the Freedom of Information Act to quash a request about MPs' paid-for trips abroad. It turns out that this exemption was put in place to deal with pressing matters of national security! This is starting to look like a pattern in government legislation isn't it? "Counter-terrorism laws will only be used against terrorists" and so on.

Mr Speaker has also, it seems, used the exemption to deal with matters even less pressingly important than overseas junkets - for example the setting up of the Parliamentary Beer Group.

MPs' tolerance of Martin in the position of speaker is starting to look almost as culpable as their expense claims.

In the meantime, Heather has been setting up an online petition. Together with the Taxpayers' Alliance, she is demanding full disclosure of MPs' expenses. This seems like a pretty good one to sign up for.

Comments

[Brian]

If he claimed withholding this information was in the interests of national security, then I suggest perjury charges are in order, or at the very least misfeasance in public office.

[Bishop Hill]

I don't think there is any suggestion that he claimed this. He doesn't have to. He merely has to state that parliamentary privilege is involved and the case is closed. The fact that the legislation was put on the statute book with critical issues of national security in mind is, of course, all in the past.

[James P]

"critical issues of national security"

As with the unceremonious ejection of Walter Wolfgang from the Labour Party conference...