Help keep Parliament transparent
10:00 am - January 21st 2009
| Tweet | Share on Tumblr |
Update MySociety point out that Parliament has withdrawn the debate on MPs expenses because of external pressure. Result!
Guardian reports:
Gordon Brown today made a dramatic retreat from plans to exempt MPs’ expenses from the Freedom of Information Act.
The surprise announcement during prime minister’s questions follows the overnight collapse of a bipartisan agreement between Brown and David Cameron, the Tory leader, to back a parliamentary order exempting MPs’ expenses from the act.
Old message…
—————
On the 16th of May 2008 the High Court ruled that MPs’ expenses must be published under the Freedom of Information Act. This Thursday, MPs are voting to change the law to keep their expenses secret after all, just before publication was due and after spending nearly a million of your pounds and seven months compiling the data.
Your MP may not even know about this proposal (it was sneaked out under the Heathrow runway announcement). Please take a few minutes to alert them to this attack on Parliamentary transparency and ask them to vote against the measure. The outcome of this vote will be prominently displayed on every MP’s page until after the next General Election.
What can you do?
* Write to your MP to protest.
* Join this Facebook group:
* Blog about it, call a local newspaper – this unfinished site might help; text, email, and instant message your friends to let them know that about this campaign.
Read more detail about mySociety’s thoughts on this issue.
| Tweet | Share on Tumblr |  |
· Other posts by Newswire
Story Filed Under: Blog ,Civil liberties ,Our democracy ,Westminster
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Reader comments
This should serve as a good example for anyone wondering ‘how can we do online campaigning in the UK’?
It does, of course, help to have a particulary egregious proposal to campaign against, kindly supplied by the government.
OK, having seen this I have to say that this campaign really is an example of how to do online campaigning.
“In view of the lack of cross-party agreement, I can confirm that we will not proceed with the motion on FoI in the debate tomorrow. I tabled the motion relating to FoI because it would provide a legal underpinning for a package of changes which would achieve greater transparency in the publication of what MPs spend.”
Bat. Shit. Crazy. What greater transparency can there be than the current system of FOI? Anything else is LESS transparency, my god…
Sorry to disagree with you Lee, but it isn’t so much ‘crazy’ as an outright lie.
The only thing you can give her is semantics. In terms of what is published by parliament she isn’t lying, weasel words, a Labour Government specialty.
You’ve made my brain hurt!
F*ck me, that was a quick win!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jan/21/mps-expenses
It has been building up for a while – the major publicity only came over the last couple of days. Even so, I’d agree that it’s pretty remarkable.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7842402.stm
Labour says they had a deal with the Conservatives – and they deny it.
A small, small victory but a victory non the less:
Earlier, Mr Brown blamed the Conservatives for what he said was a breakdown of a previous consensus over the way forward.
“We thought we had agreement on the FOI Act as part of this wider package,” he told MPs. “Recently that support that we believed we had from the main opposition party was withdrawn.
Makes ya think, no?
nothing to hide, nothing to fear!
Advice wanted. Having sent a missive to my local MPs (before the victory, U-turn) I’ve had a reply back from one of them (very New Labour) which to my interpretation (and those of others to whom I’ve shown it) is downright shirty in tone, indignant at the Unlock democracy website and very disingenuous.
Can I put the text of it up here for comment?
Here goes with a link to the letter…Sunny,please remove it if not appropriate.
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/AlisdairSCameron/MPExpenses?authkey=rPLX7sU8SfM#5294137291299940882
Heh, interesting. He ends the letter with “Like it or not, democracy costs” yet tries to use the “cost” of keeping receipts as a reason to not allow the expenses to be accessed through FOI! Contradiction in the same letter, classic.
He also seems to skip over the gardening costs, new kitchens and excessive taxi use to simply argue that the “poor” MPs need the expenses otherwise they wouldn’t be able to survive on their £60k salary”. It’s almost the same as a rich person trying to argue that no-one should be taxed because otherwise the poor will have less disposable income.
I don’t mind reimbursing my MP for expenses “they incur in doing their job”. What I object to is expenses incurred as a result of wanting a new 42″ flat screen TV.
Reactions: Twitter, blogs
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
