In a week when the Government is claiming that £35 million spent on answering FOI requests is a reason for curbing our right to know, it’s worth considering where that cost comes from. Of course, the figure is puffed up for propaganda purposes. But, as Computer Weekly reports, ministers are also happy to retain expensive lawyers in order to prevent documents being released from the Gateway review on ID cards.
The review was funded with our taxes, and the government is spending more of our taxes to deny us the right to see the results of our largess.
The review puts the cost of introducing this unwelcome intrusion into our lives at £5.4 billion. Compare that figure, and the collossal amounts wasted by the National Health Service, the Inland Revenue, the Ministry of Defence, and a myriad of bungling, spendthrift projects undertaken with little public scrutiny and oversight, and it’s clear that our right to know, in order to expose and criticise this waste, is a small cost well worth paying.