Bag's Rants

Obsessive Secrecy is still the norm.

Just come across this article on the 10 oldest secrets which were made secret by order for 100 years.

Just running down the list you would expect to come across something interesting but not one was of any real interest whatsoever. It seems that even a hundred years ago nobody in Government circles wanted any of their decisions to be open to scrutiny. Thinks don't seem to change quickly in the Civil Service. They are so far behind they wanted to vote by post to bring us into the 21st Century now we have phones, Internet, FAXs etc.

Even after the FOI Act it's not all that much different now. The Government is complaining that the Act is being used frivolously and not in the manner it was intended. Mmmm. How sad. Now of course they are looking at setting fees to minimise frivolous enquiries. Oh! and there is a ten year backlog now for appeals so don't hold your breath unless it is an easy one.

My view is that every Government file, EMail, report or whatever should be automatically put in public view. Every EMail, letter or meeting with anyone in the DoH, Treasury, DWP or anything outside the MoD should be available and most of the MoD stuff which does not compromise a SIS asset or provide enemies with tactical or strategic information that could be used against us and by that I mean details on routes for nuclear weapons or plans for securing the convoys. Personal databases such as your tax records and NHS records should also be excluded. Everything else should be on www.archive.gov.uk in a searchable database and available for all to access. Items marked as excluded should be reviewed by an independent committee with input from the excluder and an review date of not longer than five years put on it.

posted by Bag @ 3:29 pm