Taking Out The Trash

Seven lessons for FoI

A dispassionate and comprehensive analysis of lessons to be drawn for Freedom of Information from the MPs' expenses row by Martin Rosenbaum.

Lesson 7 is:

On a more journalistic note, the Telegraph has placed an enormous quantity of data and level of detail in the public domain during this period, well in excess of what is normal even for a very big, long-running story.....The relevance of this for FOI-based journalism is that information requests can often extract large amounts of data, whose full significance is not immediately apparent. In the future, we may see more examples (although presumably on a much lesser scale) of the media publishing quantities of material without telling their audience what the "story" is

We may be feasting off this information for some time to come as the significance of every cheque stub and moat receipt becomes clear. And then there is the analysis which looks at claim by party, region, job or majority. For fans of computer assisted reporting there is more gold to be found.

The numbers game

Just got my pack through from Wiltshire Council giving me candidate informaton for the unitary elections on June 4th. Some facts and figures for you:
6 candidates contesting my ward of Box & Colerne
3,835 electors
£791.75 is the amount I'm allowed to spend
4%: usual Green vote
11%: potential Green vote because of some Parliamentary difficulties you might have heard about (and I hope to get a lot more than that having knocked on hundreds of doors over the last month)
9am on June 5th: start of verification process of the ballot in Chippenham.
1pm (approx): actual start of count and of nail biting.
98: number of wards to declare and councillors to elect on that day.
10th: my wedding anniversary on the same day.
12: number of Green Party posters up in the village.
0: number of posters and canvassers from other parties I have seen out and about.

For a bit more see here.

Commentating on the blacklist

While I'm trying to find outlets interested in taking copy from next week's trial of the man accused of running a trade union blacklist; a couple of papers have published comment pieces.
Tribune has a piece from Labour NEC member Ellie Reeves while the Morning Star has a piece from Ucatt general secretary Alan Ritchie. This last inspires a combative retort from supporters of Mick Dooley who is contesting Ritchie for the top job at the builders union.

On surveillance and Sci-Fi

I'm a little late catching up with this fascinating post from author Ken MacLeod on surveillance and science fiction writing.
It follows on from a workshop on surveillance he attended which was held on Jura - the island where Orwell wrote 1984. A rather marvellous idea to hold a meeting in such a place.
MacLeod's The Night Sessions and Execution Channel both have very interesting things to say about society through their setting in a British near future.

In the line of fire

Got an article in The Guardian today on people who staff customer complaint lines.
It sounds like the kind of job most of us would think twice about taking but many of the people I spoke to got real satisfaction from it.
If you work for Kellogg's, customers send you funny-shaped cereal while those working in local government saw the chance to improve services.
And if you're Richard Branson people send you six page letters with pictures about the in flight meal.
Newspapers have been notorious for their poor complaint handling. Mobile phone firms or utility companies at least a call centre somewhere even if the staff are poorly trained and motivated. Calling a newspaper with a complaint used to be about as rewarding as watching Wigan versus Blackburn inan end of season dead rubber.
With the advent of newspaper ombudsmen, even our industry has taken some steps towards listening to the customer. I just though wonder how many over-worked news editors on local newspapers have received training on how to handle those trying complaints that come in just before deadline.
Newspapers have always been good at listening to, and reflecting, readers complain about other things. However they have a tin ear for complaints about themselves. Perhaps that has led to more of the public being turned off from traditional media and the appeal of new media with its niftier ability to handle comment and correction.
With The Evening Standard's campaign saying it's sorry we look for the ulterior motive while M&S's 'we've boobed' campaign just strikes as a clever response to a marketing failure.

Interview with a blacklisting whistleblower

Further to my post last night, here is the article by Rob Evans which provides fresh backgrond on the blacklisting scandal.

It's an interview with Alan Wainwright who has been fighting a lonely battle for several years now to expose blacklisting. What makes his story different is that he comes from the employers side. However, once he went public with his concerns, he found himself treated just like the other 'troublesome' workers and jobs were suddenly diffuclt to come by.

Alan has set up a blog which has an enormous amount of material on it detailing his story.

Both are well worth a read.

Tribune has a report on the latest developments. Both candidates for the leadership of the builders union Ucatt have found they had files held on them.

New background on blacklisting operation to be revealed tomorrow

Regular readers of this blog will know my obsession interest in the blacklisting scandal which has recently enveloped the construction industry.
I understand the Guardian is to carry tomorrow a very interesting article in the business section which adds more background to the on-going story.

Meanwhile, as of end of April, the Information Commissioner's Office hotline, where people can check if they were on Ian Kerr's files has had 1,165 calls, 242 information packs have been sent out, 124 have been returned and 122 individual files have been issued. There were more than 3,000 people on Kerr's files . . . so where are all these workers now?

Update: Construction News reports that Ucatt is considering a group civil claim against construction companies. Over at the Socialist Party and they report on a meeting at Fiddlers Ferry which several blacklisted electricians have mentioned to me is a site where they have found it difficult to get work.

Keep on rocking in the free world

Pretty excited today because I tickets today to see this fella play in London next month. A million clips to choose from but Neil Young's appearence in The Last Waltz is pretty cool.

Should taxpayers save journalism?

Via journalism.co.uk comes this story on an American study which concludes that the crisis facing journalism requires the government step in.

Wired says:

The news media has a bad case of going-out-of-business blues, what with classified ads decamped to Craigslist, readers ditching print subscriptions for the web and falling (though often still healthy) profit margins leading to massive newsroom cuts.

In fact, the internet may have been so successful at out newsing newspapers that soon large U.S. cities may not have a daily paper, at least not one printed on dead trees.

Now, Free Press, an advocacy group created to fight media consolidation, thinks the internet and profit-focused media consolidation has dealt enough of a blow to journalism that the government needs a National Journalism Strategy

You can get a copy of the report from the Free Press website.

Personally, in the current climate, I can't see taxpayers swallowing this even if I do think that the media deserve a bail out more than the banks do. And we have a much stronger public service broadcasting ethos already (we already fund the BBC).

Not only that, but has every MP is in the middle of being given the kicking of their life by the media I would suggest now is not the time to go cap in hand.

Having said all that, there is an information deficit in many parts of the country as the traditional media retreat. New media is filling some of the gap but not all (don't see many bloggers at magistrates courts) and you still need the skills to access their product.

It's not overstating it to say that this information deficit will lead to a democratic deficit - and that's where we would expect government to play a part/stick its oar in (delete as per your political preference).

Getting too close to the story

I posted at the weekend about how Freedom of Information campaigner Heather Brooke should be praised for her role in the MPs expenses scandal. (Long backgound piece by Heather in the Guardian today)

I also raised a brief concern about her motivation.

That appears confirmed by this post from Heather urging people to join her and the Taxpayers Alliance and sign a petition calling for full and immediate publication of all MPs expenses.

Linking up with the Taxpayers Alliance is, I believe, a mistake. Journalists do align themselves with protest groups when they become particularly close to a story. It's a tough call about how independent you wish to be. I'm all for journalists taking a stand because some things are just wrong.

However, the TPA , I believe, is a front for big business which has no interest in quality journalism. It does a superb job at getting lazy and/or incompetent journalists to reprint its poorly researched press releases which pursue an extreme ideological line.

Personally, I'd like to see Heather use her skills investigating who funds theTPA rather than give this astroturf campaign any credibility.

Have a look at this piece from Tax Justice Network for some background.

Update: Heather has responded on her blog to my comments there and I've reprinted below.

HI Phil,
I take your points, but this is just too big for one person and I need the help. I asked the Mysociety guys but they don’t have the manpower right now to set up a separate petition.
And I have to say the TPA have been assiduous users of the FOIA - more than almost anyone.
The issue of transparent accountable government is one that transcends party politics. It unites both left and right.

I don’t agree that we have a real choice in elections. Our choice is superficial and pre-determined. I would like to see a system that is more responsive and gives the chance for local leaders to move up the ranks into parliament rather than having a few elites parachuted into constituencies based on having worked in the strategy unit.

Update II: and this post from Heather adds some nice colour to her campaign.