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Straw Vetoes Freedom of Information.
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Straw vetoes Iraq minutes release
Justice Secretary Jack Straw has vetoed the publication of minutes of key cabinet meetings held in the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003.
He said he would use a clause in the Freedom of Information Act to block the release of details of meetings in which the war's legality was discussed.
Releasing the papers would do "serious damage" to cabinet government, he said, and outweighed public interest needs.

The Information Tribunal ruled last month that they should be published.

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This is the Foreign Secretary who introduced to the House of Commons library ‘revised’ rules on the acceptance and wear of foreign awards so that the PJM could not be worn. These rules place restrictions on British private citizens and as such are non-statutory and any objection to them in the court of human rights would find them to be unlawful and unjust. But this establishment can do anything they like and they have no concern for democracy or justice. If it was not so serious it would be hilarious to call this man the Justice Secretary.

It takes 40 days to ask a question for information under the Freedom of Information Act. It used to be 20 days but now they write to you and tell you they need another 20 days which apparently is acceptable to them. An internal Review requested after they refuse to give you the information, which is mostly the case, takes about another 40 days or more to tell you exactly what they told you in the first place. So then you go to the Information Commissioner and after almost a year you are still waiting for the information you asked to see. Now we are told that after the Information Commissioner says the information is in the public interest and should be released they can now veto it.

And they call this open and transparent government. No wonder the people of this country feel betrayed.

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We all know how he slopes shoulders, I saw him in parliament last week, can't even find himself a decent tailor, with all that money that he does NOT earn....Well done Mcdangle, a nice little piece for Barry's Archive.
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Terry...

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In my book it makes them guilty by association and that is how the public sees it, even Jeremy Paxman queried this decision on Newsnight on Tuesday


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The Question has to be asked "Which Senior Civil Servant instructed him"?

I know who I would put my money on but others might say GOD KNOWS.

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What price freedom?.... The efforts and sacrifices of old farts like us who secured it for Malaysia in the tradition of our fathers and grandfathers who fought two World Wars to preserve it. What price information?.... Ah,well, that is now the "real question." It should be the collective knowledge of each generation passed on to the next to be shared without fear or favour for the common good. I now ask....."What price truth and decency?"

It seems I must answer my own question to free up this site...so here goes..... My reply is based on 25+ years as a school master, many of them as a house master when I had to recognise my own imperfections before judging those of a new generation. It was both a humbling and instructive part of my life which caused me to think well before making any rash judgements. Therefore I guess the price of "truth" is to have the courage to openly discuss problems in the spirit of what we call democracy while adhering to the decent qualities of being human. The black and white qualities of what we call truth and lies are well defined and faced with irrefutable facts against the truth most people back down and hold up their hands in supplication. I have certainly done it myself on several occasions during my 71 years of making the best of life and accepted the bollockings.

What I have never done, however, is entrench myself behind a wall of silence to lie and obfuscate when proved wrong, and wrong again. I think that in our partiulcar case we know the truth and must wait for someone to rescue it.....for us and future generations of those who served at the sharp end.


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