The Scotsman reports on the no fewer than thirty government written announcements which were made on the last day that the House of Commons was sitting before departing on its eleven week recess, which has been christened “Trashy Thursday.”
Now the fact that a government, especially a new Gordon Brown government which is barely a month old, will try to bury as much of its bad news on a day when political journalists will be joining MPs in packing their suitcases before heading off on their holidays isn’t may be all that surprising, but from a democratic perspective it really sucks. Indeed, the tactic featured once in an episode during the first season of cult American political TV series, the West Wing, "Take Out the Trash Day."
Effective scrutiny of our politicians and the governmental machine is difficult enough at the best of times, without letting them control when they release information of legitimate public interest, but Mr Smith thinks that perhaps if more journalists had a less cosy and more questioning relationship with government rather than accepting the planted and very spun stories which they publish just about every day of the week, then perhaps democracy would be better off in this country. Isn’t that after all what journalists are meant to do?
Oh, and buried in one of the statements was the disclosure that £5.9 million of public money was spent on Ministerial cars. Although, the Scotland Office spent the least, buying one car at the price of £62,200. Obviously not a Mondeo then.
