Political

Freedom of Information: a 38 Degrees petition you should sign

It’s fair to say that 38 Degrees has a somewhat variable reputation amongst Liberal Democrats, not helped by the usual ‘it’s all the fault of the person making the criticisms’ in response to any criticisms of the organisation (see the comment on my post about Norman Baker’s views of 38 Degrees for an example).

However, here’s a petition that is definitely worth supporting:

To: The Government
Petition text: Protect our Freedom of Information laws, that give people the right to hold our decision makers to account.

As MySociety, which runs the excellent What Do They Know? website, explains:

Proposed changes, currently under discussion by a cross-party government commission, could make it much harder for you to access information.

This is what the proposed restrictions would mean for you:

  • You’d be charged for making a request
  • Your request could be turned down on the grounds of cost, even more easily than it can be now
  • You’d find it more difficult (or even impossible) to obtain details of public authorities’ internal discussions
  • The release of government information could be easily blocked by ministers

You have until 20 November if you’d like to voice your opposition to these restraints.

You can sign the information to protect our Freedom of Information laws here and MySociety’s website has a clear guide to taking further action once you have signed it.

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