Vox Polis

The Lib Dems have come up with proposals for a Great Repeal Act and are asking people to suggest more - here. There are only 10 laws on the list at the moment, I’m sure we can at least double that.

I posted an article last week about planned changes to the FoI Act that could make it very difficult for journalists to make requests under the act.  Part of basis for the changes is a report by Frontier Economics which claimed that the FoI requests were costing the taxpayer £35 million a year.  The Campaign for Freedom of Information (CfoI) made a request to the Department of Constitutional Affairs for access to the data used to formulate the report.  This request was denied on the grounds that the information “relates to the formulation and development of government policy” which makes it exempt from disclosure under the FoI Act.  As pointed out by Maurice Frankel of CfoI “The whole debate becomes very difficult if the Government is not prepared to release the factual survey which forms the basis of the Frontier Economics report.”

Quite what’s to be done when the department responsible for the FoI act are plucking numbers out of the air and then stifling attempts to call them up on this I don’t know.  That the FoI Act contains a clause allowing the government not to reveal the information it uses in policy decisions points to how little the government really believe in openness.

Via Out-Law.com.

The Department of Constitutional Affairs (DCA) today announced changes to the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act which would increase administrative charges for requests made under the act. Increased charges would lead to a greater number of requests breaking the £600 threshold above which a request can be denied due to cost. According to Maurice Frankel of the Campaign for Freedom of Information the changes “…would knock out a significant volume of the most important requests on public issues so it would have a pretty drastic effect on the legislation.” In addition to this it will become possible for information holders to refuse requests if the total of cost of requests from a single organisation in a 3 month period exceeds the £600 threshold. This bundling of requests would have a serious impact on the ability of journalists working for large organisations to make requests. It has been suggested that the changes would also make it particularly difficult to question ministers since passing a request up to a minister immediately adds several hundred pounds to the cost of a request. Needless to say a spokesman for the DCA (sort of) denied that the changes were intended to decrease legitimate use of the act - “The government are doing what they always said and reviewing the position after 12 to 18 months live running and considering changes in light of experience.”

I’ve no doubt that the FoI Act is used to make frivolous requests and that these cost the taxpayer money. However given the government’s willingness to waste money on say a giant tent, their zealous pursuit of savings in the case of FoI suggests that there might be more to the changes than just the finances. It’s all very depressing really, once again the government seem to have forgotten that they work for us not on a higher plane were they must occasionally tolerate requests from the proles. Hopefully further oversight freedom minded backbenchers or an outcry from the media will prevent these proposals from passing into law.

More at The Register.

Finally some outline of what’s going to be done with the House of Lords. But will the plans outlined by Straw, leaked to the Sunday Times, really reduce patronage?

Although many of the details don’t seem that different to those considered back in 2003, it’s worth going over what’s in the Times. They say that:

Only 50% will be elected, the other half is apparently to be chosen by a 9 person commission whose role is to make appointments to the upper chamber. Each party will have to submit a list to them for approval - A good attempt to end patronage, although what you have to do to get on the list is unclear.

There is a suggestion that the PM will be able to bypass the commission and appoint a few members - so the same system then, just with a commission to rubber stamp the nominations.

The plan suggests using the list system of proportional representation similar to the Scottish system for the elected half. The Scots use PR to elect regional representatives. However this allows patronage because it is the party that decides who’s on the list and who’s not - one feels that the PM will certainly have an influence here.

The best way forward is to make it more democratic (or 100% elected) and adopt the Wakefield report recommendations that:

A majority of the members of the new House will be nominated by the political parties, in proportions intended to reflect the shares of the national vote in the previous General Election.

This is what is required in a liberal democratic state. For too long we have stood by and allowed the authoritarian patriarchal system of government to continue, it must be stopped.

Like she really had much of a choice.  At least as an Independent she can now campaign for the lib dems a hung parliament  without upsetting those who sit next to her. 

Personally I think her sentiment is correct.  The best thing for Labour would be a hung parliament - if Labour MPs start losing their seats it would give them an imputus to rethink Labour’s losing strategy and become more relevant to the country.

Thanks to Liam Byrne, the Home Office Minister, we now know what the Home Office thinks what the costs of introducing ID cards will be. A staggering £5.4 billion over 10 years - plus an extra billion or so.

For that we could have about 18 hospitals.

Yet again the Right Wing have grabbed hold of the future with both hands, leaving everyone else bewildered and lying in the dust. The Right seem to dominate when it comes to blogging - they were first with ConservativeHome (and then everyone else followed) and many of the top blogs are Right Wing. Now they’re set to dominate the new(ish) medium of vidcasting and internet TV.

This week has seen the launch of WebCameron and Recess Monkey reported that Guido* was going to start doing it too. We already know that Iain Dale et al are doing 18 Doughty Street. But where are the lefty vid bloggers?? Will they be playing catchup?

We over at Vox Polis are divided over the impact of video on line Jonny thinks that no one will want to watch it on the move like they listen to podcasts, and if they do then they’ll fall over/walk into lamp posts/crash their cars whilst watching. He’s also not too convinced that politics will work well in this format. I think it has potential. Apple certainly think it’s the future. The Right think it’ll catch on. Will Jonny eat his TV remote if he’s wrong?

* I know Guido is strictly in the non-aligned section, but he seems pretty Right Wing to me.

Watch Cameron clean the dishes promise to clean up politics with the usual cries of “we need small government, fewer MPs, to save money, more porridge for the masses etc” on his new blog - webcameron.

The spin doctors have gone with the “keeping it real” breakfast complete with screaming kids.

I bet the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 are really scared by Cameron news!

Updated!-  Looks like everyone wants a bit of WebCameron.  The servers have been crashing all weekend.

The Indie has a quiz which shows how Blairite Camaroonian you are. Like any good quiz, you either have to be a card carrying Communist or a EU hating, backward looking UKIPian to not be classed as a Camoroonian. Just like real life!

Updated! - Interestingly it seems that the Indie are using Camoroonian, where clearly it should be Cameronian! (as Jonny pointed out).  I stupidly decided to follow the Indie in a sheep like manner.  Strong words will be had!

What a surprise! John Reid’s given into populism and fear and announced that the UK is going to restrict access to Bulgarians and Romanians. He said in a speech to the Police Sperintendents Association that immigration from the two member states would have to be “carefully managed”.

Even though the Observer reports that Tony Blair was seemingly convinced by business supporters of Roland Rudd’s Business for New Europe (BNE) group to let them in.

Its good to see that Daily Mail-ism and xenophobia win once again!