No FoI For Northern Wreck

[EXC]

I came accross this in the current addition of Private Eye:

What was it that Gordon Brown said about restoring trust and exposing the government to the full glare of the freedom of information laws, which ''is the right course because government belongs to the people?''.

His first step when nationalising Northern Wreck ( or using the ''temporary public ownership solution''as he called it) was to excude the bank from freedom of information laws, making it the only taxpayer-owned company to operate behind an official veil of secrecy. This was essential, insisted Gordon, because ''it is surely a matter of commercial confidentiality that Northern Rock should be able to plan it's business future'', ignoring existing let-outs from FoI rules for commercial information which are good enough for bodies like the Post Office and certainly cover business plans.

To keep any of the Rock's grubby little secrets out of the public eye an alternative truth has been fashioned. Under emergency legislation the bank ''shall be deemed not to be a publicly-owned company '' and so fall outside of freedom of information laws. Perhaps later legislation will deem the whole horrible episode never to have happened so there'll be nothing to find out about it anyway...

[righty]

Re: No FoI For Northern Wreck

Yup He doesn't want us to find out what a totally crap deal it is for the tax payer

The spin about Granite will, like all else this government claim come back to bite them & unfortunately us.

This clause was added to the bill at the last minute & late at night in the hope it wouldn't be spotted in time & it wasn't - until it was too late.

In the main our political class, & this government in particular, really are a bunch of disgusting, self serving, robbing cretins

They spout a load of sanctimonious crap in the media without realising just how little people now believe

As old labour I never thought I'd say this but 'bring back Major' even if it was sleazy they can't hold a candle to this lot

[Guest]

Re: No FoI For Northern Wreck

It was spotted, by both the Conservatives and the Lib Dems but they were defeated, despite opposition in the Lords. What is more, the hurriedly drafted legislation allows the Government to nationalise any financial institution and will also mean they will enjoy an exemption from the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

[righty]

Re: No FoI For Northern Wreck

Correct I why should any bank in the UK act with prudence when they know that if push comes to shove this government through the largess of the tax payer will bail them out.

I suspect that in some far off tax haven there is at this very moment a bank president saying "Crikey see what's happened in the UK - lets move our operation there - we can cock it up to our hearts content but as long as we employ staff North of Watford we will never have to answer for our failings - & if it should happen that we lose billions just give them the odd sacrificial lamb - then it's back to business as usual"