If you'd asked me two years ago what the biggest problem with Great Britain was, I'd have said "Haven't got a clue". Over the past couple of years, mostly as a result of writing this blog, I have a very clear idea. It may surprise you to hear that the problem isn't the Tories and it isn't Labour. It's not the Lib Dems or the BNP.
It is nothing to do with Party politics. It is however the major problem with party politics. What am I talking about? Secrecy in Government. We all pay taxes but the powers that be make all of the important decisions behind closed doors. In the USA this is not the case. The culture of Freedom of Information in public office is a fundamental right. Expenses are publicised, meetings are minuted and documented. The opposition have access to all of this so the rulers have to do a good job. There are no dodgy deals behind closed doors. That is why the USA has become the richest and the most powerful nation on Earth.
Over here things are done slightly differently. If you go to the public gallery at the Council to watch meetings, you'll know that all of the important discussions are taken with the public excluded. Are they discussin national security? What do you think.
There is a truly disgusting story in the Guardian today. It illustrates to me that Jack Straw is just not up to the job. The government and the judiciary can continue to conceal the names of more than 170 misbehaving judges, a freedom of information tribunal has ruled.
The ruling came out in favour of justice secretary, Jack Straw, and the judiciary as they have fought a four-year battle to hide the identities of miscreants.
The three-member tribunal, led by David Marks QC, dismissed a challenge from the Guardian which had argued that the public should know which judges had been disciplined and why.
The reason for this? Members of the judiciary who have been sacked or reprimanded for misconduct would suffer "great distress" if details of their misdemeanours were made public.
These people are paid a great deal of money. They are paid this in expectation that they behave themselves. How anyone, let alone a justice secretary could possibly claim that it is not in the public interest for bad apples to be exposed is beyond me.
Until we abolish secrecy and open the whole system up to proper scrutiny, this country will never be fair, free and honest
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