Well, well – Gordon’s claim to have left his control freakery behind and to now be a shining example of openness, accountability and honesty in politics hasn’t lasted very long.
Put to the test on IDs cards, he’s decided keeping the costs secret is best after all. There had been freedom of information requests from both the Liberal Democrats and No2ID to get released the Government’s own review of the costs of ID cards.
The Labour Government has consistently tried to stop the documents coming out, and even having the Information Tribunal rule against the Treasury hasn’t made Gordon Brown publish the documents. Instead he’s put in another appeal to try to keep the documents secret.
And the nice irony about this all? It’ll be our money being spent (on the Treasury’s legal costs) to try to keep secret how much of our money will be spent on ID cards.
As Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary Nick Clegg says,
Gordon Brown is deluding himself if he believes public trust can be built on government secrecy. Why should taxpayers pay for his attempts to hide how much they are paying for this project in the first place?
More details in The Observer.
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This is out of date information about a somewhat vapourware proposal that was radically changed last autumn. Historically useful, maybe, but of very little relevance to the future. So sadness rather than outrage would be a better response to OGC’s decision to appeal.