They don't like it up 'em

There's an excellent piece by Philip Johnston in today's Telegraph, on how Labour is supporting an attempt to exempt MPs from the Freedom of Information Act.

But, of course, ministers did not really want transparency at all; they wanted to be congratulated for having legislated to bring it about but the public was not actually meant to be given anything so dangerous as a right to know. Heaven forfend.

Once again we see the distinctive hallmark of New Labour, the yawning gap between rhetoric and achievement. In the immortal words of Lance-Corporal Jones in Dad's Army: "They don't like it up 'em." Ministers have clearly tired of having to divulge all those secrets they were so keen to extract from the executive when they were in opposition but can find a myriad reasons for keeping now they are in office.