Pots, Kettles and Questions

Not much makes my jaw drop these days, but the unbelievable hypocrisy of the Scottish Labour Party over Freedom of Information (FOI) - does the trick every time.

For months and years now Scottish Labour has been attacking the Scottish Government over an FOI request - which the Scottish Government refused to answer by appealing a decision of the Scottish Information Commissioner (SIC) to the Court of Session, Scotland's highest civil court.

Now for what it's worth I think the Government should never have appealed and should simply have complied with the SIC decision - a long time ago.

Presumably the Labour Party believes that as well because ever since they've been bangming on about the terrible watse of public money and resources - and how the Scottish Government should be ashamed of itself.

I read the other day a comment from the Labour MEP - Catherine Stihler - who made the original FOI request and is apparently now incandescant with rage:

“This is a smokescreen by Alex Salmond. My question wasn’t just about the ministerial code, it was about his abuse of power. I wanted to know why he went to court at the taxpayers’ expense rather than answer simple questions".

Now what I want to know is why doesn't the Scottish Labour ask the same question of South Lanarkshire Council - a Labour/Tory run council which refuses to explain how traditional male council jobs are paid - in comparison to its largely female workforce.

South Lanarkshire Council lost an appeal on this issue to the Scottish Information Commissioner  - but appealed again (using public money) to the Court of Session - where three Scottish law lords unanimously gave South Lanarkshire's arguments short shrift.

Yet South Lanarkhire has appealed the matter even further - to the UK Supreme Court - withou the Scottish Labour Party saying a word in anger.

Pot and Kettle (27 September 2102)

I found myself speculating the other day about Labour's Scottish leader - Johann Lamont - and why she has such a 'pot and kettle' approach to Freedom of Information (FOI).

By way of background here's an interesting report from the BBC on recent exchanges in the Scottish Parliament - where the Labour leader lambasts First Minister - Alex Salmond - for failing to come clean over FOI.

Now what I find remarkable is that the Labour leader - Johann Lamont - is getting her knickers in a right old twist over the Scottish Government's refusal to accept a decision by the independent Scottish Information Commissioner.

The Scottish Information Commissioner having previously ruled against the Scottish Government - in favour of disclosure.

The BBC reports Johann Lamont as asking why the First Minister was spending hundreds of thousands of pounds of Scottish people's money - to stop the people of Scotland finding out what he was doing.

Which begs the question:

"Why is Johann so worked up about the Scottish Government and FOI - when Labour-led South Lanarkshire Council is doing exactly the same thing?

In fact South Lanarkshire Council's behaviour is much worse - it has to be said.

Because South Lanarkshire is not only refusing to abide by a rulling of the Scottish Information Commissioner - SLC is also refusing to abide by the outcome of its subsequent appeal to the Court of Session - Scotland's highest civil court.

An appeal in which three senior Scottish judges unanimously threw out South Lanarkshire's case - and upheld the original decision of the Scottish Information Commissioner.

But Labour-led South Lanarkshire have appealed the case again to the UK Supreme Court - wasting huge amounts of public money in the process - even more than the appeal to the Court of Session.

Yet the People's Party remains silent on the subject - as quiet as a wee church mouse - or some other such timorous beastie.

So I say 'knickers' to Johann Lamont - because she is simply making this up as she goes along.

Because you can't have principles that apply only to other people - that the Labour Party in Scotland can just ignore when it proves politically convenient.

Not if you want to have any credibility with the Scottish people who will see this behaviour for what it is - shameless hypocrisy.

And if you want to tell Johann Lamont that the Labour Party cannot afford to be turning a blind eye to the scandalous goings on in its own backyard - then here is Johann's e-mail address at the Scottish Parliament: johann.lamont.msp@scottish.parliament.uk

BBC - Democracy Live

Alex Salmond defended his government's record on Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, as the row over the existence and release of legal advice on an independent Scotland's EU status continued in first minister's questions on 20 September 2012.

A judge approved the fast tracking of a case which will decide whether the Scottish government must reveal if it has any such advice.

At the Court of Session, Lord Menzies approved a motion from the information commissioner, Rosemary Agnew.

The case will be heard on 18 and 19 December.

Mr Salmond had refused to answer a freedom of information request on the subject, saying to do so would break ministerial code rules.

The first minister had said a detailed assessment of an independent Scotland in Europe would be made in a white paper ahead of the independence referendum, which he wants to hold in autumn 2014.

Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont called on Mr Salmond to explain why the information commissioner had said the position over freedom of information was worse now than when the Freedom of Information Act had been passed.

Ms Lamont said the first minister "can't be straight with or have respect for the Scottish people" as he refused to reveal what legal advice he had.

She asked why he was spending hundreds of thousands of pounds of Scottish people's money to stop the people of Scotland finding out what he was doing.

Mr Salmond hit back, saying the commissioner had been worried about the detrimental propensity of local authorities to use arm length bodies to avoid FOI questions and he suggested Glasgow as a prime example of that.

The first minister said the Scottish government had, "on all criteria", performed better under FOI than under the preceding Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition, the government Johan Lamont had been proud to serve under.

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson also attacked the first minister over his record under the FOI legislation asking how much tax payers' hard earned money had gone to "shore up his secret society and deny information to the people of Scotland they were perfectly entitled to".

Mr Salmond said he welcomed the Conservative party's "new found conversion" to the freedom of information legislation as they had been the party least in favour of it and again listed statistics he claimed showed the Scottish government outperforming the previous Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition on all criteria.