JohnBM:Liberal

Watching Cameron on PMQs with my three-year-old son today.

The Tories are accusing Brown of trying to rig the electoral system to suit Labour at the next election.

This reminded me of the 2005 Lib Dem conference in Blackpool when I attended an IPPR (I think) seminar with Michael Gove on proportional representation.

In that seminar he waxed lyrical of his “road to Damascus on PR” that came out of the 1997 defeat at the hands of New Labour.

I would be interested to know what Mr. Gove’s current views are on PR and if you can u-turn on the road to Damascus.

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. This  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.