Harman calls for open legal advice
While some of her ministerial colleagues seem to be less than enthusiastic about it, Harriet Harman is proclaiming the virtues of open goverment.
In a speech to be given tomorrow she is calling for much of the legal advice given to ministers by the Attorney General to be made public.
She explains: 'For public trust to be maximised, secrecy must be minimised. This is not just a question of public confidence. The belief behind our commitment to the freedom of information is not just the public are entitled to know what is done in their name and at their expense, but also that decisions that are made publicly and for which the decision maker is accountable are likely to be more thoughtful and better quality decisions.'
This is particularly striking since she is now a minister at the Department for Constitutional Affairs and was previously a government law officer herself as Solicitor General.
The various candidates for the forthcoming battle for the Labour deputy leadership (of which she is one) are building up some freedom to stake out their own personal political positions. It will be interesting to see how they respond if each is pressed for a personal viewpoint on the government's plans to restrict FOI.
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I agree with Harman. Public has the right o know howdecisions are mad. All this secrecy busines was invented by politicians and bureaucrats to shield themselves from criticism. The more open the Government the better the Government