Keeping secrets to save their skins
Phil Briscoe is a Conservative councillor for Blackwall and Cubitt Town
The arrest of Damian Green, shadow immigration minister, has raised a number of serious constitutional issues.
The scale of the police operation, raids on Parliamentary offices, and questions about the advance involvement of government ministers have overshadowed other news this week.
Looking behind the events raises the question: when is information truly confidential, to the extent that publication would be detrimental to the public good?
There is a clear difference between information that is sensitive for national security and that classed as secret simply for political expediency. Is the secrecy surrounding immigration figures really justified, or merely a smokescreen to protect political necks at Westminster?
Locally, we regularly receive pink council agenda pages stamped “confidential�. They must be withheld from the public realm under threat of disciplinary action, but more often than not they should be stamped “embarrassing� rather than “confidential�. The publication of such information is generally in the public good, the real deceit is burying it.
On the Isle of Dogs, One Housing has excelled in exercising secrecy since it took over several estates this year, excluding resident groups from involvement, decision-making and information about their future plans, even changing the locks to the residents groups’ offices to stop their meetings.
The sudden departures of loyal staff members who have served local residents for many years prompts one to wonder if they knew too many secrets for their own good?
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