Letter to Herald Express 300507 - FoI

Letter sent to the 'Herald Express' newspaper 300507 :

Marcus Wood of Torbay Conservatives has accused the Liberal Democrats of jumping on the bandwagon in public with regard to the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill, but not following this up with action.

The reality is this : on Friday 18th May, Conservative and Labour MPs voted to exempt Parliament from Freedom of Information laws, creating one law for MPs and Lords and one law for everyone else. The opposition was led by Liberal Democrat MPs Norman Baker and Simon Hughes and not a single Lib Dem MP voted in favour of the Bill.

Yes, Adrian Sanders MP did miss the vote on the third reading of the bill, but this was only brought about by a totally unexpected calling of votes earlier than planned. Adrian had previously voted in two earlier divisions on the amended FoI provisions.

Adrian's public position and voting record is wholly liberal and consistent. The new made over and supposedly 'liberal' Conservatives have Anthony Steen MP for Totnes in favour of a bill he sees as generally 'not important' whilst Marcus takes an entirely different view. These two prominent local Tories can't even agree amongst themselves, yet Marcus still has the chutzpah to wrongly assail the Lib Dem record !

Wrong again Marcus !


Barrie Wood
Ellacombe Liberal Democrats