21st May 2007

Just 121 MPs found the time on May 18th to vote on David Maclean's bill to exempt the House of Commons from the law on Freedom of Information, and it is truly shameful that only a paltry 25 were there to vote against it.

The ostensible justification for this bill is to prevent the contents of private letters to MPs being released to the public. But there is already legal protection covering this, and in any case surely the true nature of the vote is obvious?

The bill’s real purpose was to bury any chance of potential disquiet over awkward and compromising details of MPs' expenses and allowances. This flagrant attempt to conceal knowledge which should be in the public domain is really quite sinister in its political implications.

And if the bill becomes law, we would then be in the absurd situation whereby the Scottish Parliament, the Northern Ireland and Welsh Assemblies and local councils would be compelled to obey the Freedom of Information Act, while for the English Parliament it would in part not even be applicable.

Surely we all have the right to know how taxpayers' money is being spent? I'm afraid Parmjit Dhanda's palliative words on this subject strike me as wholly disingenuous. It is simply another example of MPs’ relentless appetite to create legislation beneficial for their own privileged numbers, and done with increasing contempt for the electorate who voted them in.

Rosie Reed,

Stroud District Green party