Monday 20 November 2006

Open government

The Information Commissioner says that public bodies need to try harder:
"People are confident that more information will come into the public domain as a result and fewer believe public authorities can get round the act.

However people still remain to be convinced that Scottish public authorities are changing culture to become more open and accountable."

The real question is why we need an Information Commissioner in the first place. And the answer is that government is far too big. Instead of pretending that politicians and bureaucrats can somehow become "accountable", let's recognise that the whole state sector is unaccountable by its very nature. If we want accountability, turn things over to competitive suppliers serving paying customers who can take their business elsewhere. That's real accountability.

1 comment:

David Farrer said...

Comments made on previous template:

David Farrer
Stuart, 
 
Just back from London. 
Blogging will resume tomorrow. 
 
David

26 November 2006, 20:46:52 GMT
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Stuart Dickson
I seem to have cocked up that Sunday Telegraph link (I do not use HTML very much nowadays). Hopefully this will work: 
 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=FHK0CFQJKEIJBQFIQMFCFFOAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2006/11/26/nunion26.xml

26 November 2006, 08:01:37 GMT
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Stuart Dickson
Hi David, long time no see! 
 
Sorry to dive straight off-topic, but just thought you might like to have a look at this Sunday Telegraph/ICM poll: 
 
"England wants its independence" 
 
I would blog about it myself, but just not in the mood at the mo. Interested to know your perspective though, and the thoughts of your readers. 
 
Apparently the great Mike Smithson at http://politicalbetting.com/ is going to be posting on this topic, presumably later today. This is notable, because the UK's biggest political blog usually ignores the constitutional issue. In fact I cannot recall Mike blogging on Scottish politics, ever... ! Perhaps it is more the English angle that will be explored?

26 November 2006, 07:57:55 GMT
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james higham
That's real accountability. Yes it is. When will we get it?

20 November 2006, 16:37:49 GMT