The Tories are shouting about Gordon’s plans to consult on election reform. They are accusing Brown of engineering the system to a lesser form of proportional representation to prevent a Tory landslide. ThisĀ should not worry Tories as much as another less reported reform – Freedom of Information.
Gordon Brown announced today a pledge to consult on extending Freedom of Information laws. This would include a reduction of the “thirty year” rule on secrecy of cabinet papers to twenty years (GOOD) and a tightening up of FOI under twenty years (BAD).
This would open up the cabinet papers of the Thatcher government to scrutiny and reduce access to the Blair/Brown years.
In the run up to a 2010 election the opening up of the Westland / Miner’s Strike / Belgrano papers would be gold dust for Labour whilst Iraq / Weapons of Mass Destruction / Dr.Kelly would be protected.
Gordon only believes in Freedom for Information for other people’s governments.
