| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Lack of intelligence? | |
| Posted by: | Cllr Sam Hearn | |
| Date/Time: | 18/11/15 12:47:00 |
| A cut and paste from a review of Tony Blair's memoirs "You idiot. You naive, foolish, irresponsible nincompoop. There is really no description of stupidity, no matter how vivid, that is adequate. I quake at the imbecility of it." These are the words Tony Blair addresses to himself in his memoirs while reflecting on his government's introduction of the Freedom of Information Act. He claims that FOI is not used, for the most part, by "the people", but by journalists. His view is that "For political leaders, it's like saying to someone who is hitting you over the head with a stick, 'Hey, try this instead', and handing them a mallet." And he says there's another reason why it's dangerous: governments need to be able to discuss issues "with a reasonable level of confidentiality". In his Guardian interview today, he expands further: "If you are trying to take a difficult decision and you're weighing up the pros and cons, you have frank conversations... And if those conversations then are put out in a published form that afterwards are liable to be highlighted in particular ways, you are going to be very cautious. That's why it's not a sensible thing." |