Hope you’ll all tune in tonight to watch On Expenses at 9pm on BBC4.

Great to see it’s made pick of the day in most of the newspapers (even if my character was described by the Times’ parliamentary sketch writer Ann Treneman as ‘this side of loony on the bus’).

Well, if the shoe fits…

The dramatisation of my campaign to open up Parliament now has a date.

On Expenses (formerly Bringing Down the House) will have its first broadcast on BBC4 at 9pm on Tuesday February 23rd. Don’t miss it!! I’ve done an interview with Martin Bell for the Radio Times and will be in tomorrow’s (Feb 16th) Woman’s Own magazine for those who want a taste of what’s to come.

I’ve just returned from a week’s holiday in Cornwall. It was my first time along the Atlantic Cornish coast and I absolutely loved it. I did some epic walks along the cliffs of Crackington Haven then headed down past Tintagel, Rock, Padstow and on to St Ives with a few trips out to Penzance and the wonderful Minack Theatre in Porthcurno.

Cornwall is a truly magical place but it got me thinking about who owns this lovely landscape so favoured by artists. Land ownership is the primary means by which scarce resources are divided in society and as such in a democracy it is imperative that the people know who owns land. In the UK we don’t have a clear idea of who owns the land which is why I am keen to liberate the entire data set of the Land Registry. At the moment you can look up an address and find the owner for the cost of £4 per search but it is not possible to search by land owner.

We do know, however, who is the biggest land owner in Cornwall: the Duchy of Cornwall. But what do we know about this estate and the tax relief or benefits Prince Charles receives as a result of inheriting this vast land holding?

I asked one of my avid correspondents Philip Hosking who is a specialist in all matters Cornish. He’d been in touch several months ago seeking advice about using the Freedom of Information Act to get answers to questions about any public subsidies or benefits received by the Duchy.

He has found the Duchy to be less than transparent. Instead this feudal constitutional body of governance claims that it is nothing more than a private landed estate and therefore exempt from the FOI act. He did point me to John Cross who is using the FOI act to obtain as much info as possible on the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall. You can find out about his work by visiting his blog Confirm or Deny.

For those interested in this subject, John Kirkhope, a Notary Public and Solicitor, has extensively researched the Duchy of Cornwall and is organising a series of public talks on the Laws of Cornwall.

I have one word of advice to all those seeking info on land ownership. Instead of using the Freedom of Information Act you might also try citing the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. This law is based on an EU directive and covers a wide range of information about the environment including land use and pollution. It also applies to any organisation conducting activities affecting the environment, not just public bodies (thus the Duchy of Cornwall IS covered under the EIR). For more info about using the EIR see the websites for the Information Commissioner, or the Scottish Information Commissioner. You should also look at the site of Rob Edwards who is an excellent journalist covering the environment and using both FOI and the EIR laws.