Book Review : OPEN GOVERNMENT: edited by Richard Chapman and Michael Hunt: Croom Helm, 1987, £25, pp.194
| Published date | 01 January 1988 |
| Date | 01 January 1988 |
| Author | George Moseley |
| DOI | 10.1177/095207678800300107 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
56
BOOK
REVIEW,
Sir
George
Moseley.
OPEN
GOVERNMENT:
edited
by
Richard
Chapman
and
Michael
Hunt:
Croom
Helm,
1987, £25, pp.194
The
editors
describe
this
as
a
collection
of
papers,
presented
to
a
research
workshop
on
"Open
Government"
held
in
April
1986
at
the
University
of
Leicester
under
the
auspices
of
the
Public
Administration
Committee
of
the
Joint
University
Council.
The
papers
as
published
were
revised
in
the
light
of
the
discussion.
Seldom
can
the
students
of
government
in
the
United
Kingdom
have
been
so
generously
provided
with
current
developments
of
a
subject
as
has
occurred
over
the
recent
past
in
this
area
of
Open
Government/Freedom
of
Information/Secrecy.
Seldom
can
there
have
been
a
topic
which
has
so
united
the
media
in
their
con-
demnation
of
the
current
state
of
affairs
and
their
demand
for
change.
There
has
been
less
unanimity
on
what
changes
should
take
place;
and
much
of
the
value
of
this
book
lies
in
the
honest
recognition
of
the
very
wide
range
of
views
which
exist
on
what
should
be
done
by
way
of
amending
existing
statutes,
notably
the
Official
Secrets
Act
and
in
the
creation
of
a
new
statutory
regime
allowing
greater
access
to
information
in
the
hands
of
politicians,
administrators
and
bureau-
crats
in
the
public
sector.
Settle
twenty
eminent
people
to
discuss
this
very
large
subject
and
it
would
be
surprising
if
the
outcome
was
not
of
considerable
interest
to
the
cognoscenti.
This
particular
group
had
a
judicious
mixture
of
practitioners
and
academics
and
one’s
only
criticism
must
be
that
there
was
no
representative
of
the
Government
in
power.
For
there
is
little
doubt
that
enthusiasm
for
funda-
mental
change
in
the
present
arrangements
does -
understandably
of
course -
appear
to
be
in
direct
relationship
to
the
distance
the
individual
sits
from
having
responsibility
for
Government.
It,
so
happens
that
one
of
the
Leicester
workshop
participants
was
Mr
Merlyn
Rees,
who
was
Home
Secretary
during
the
Callaghan
Government,
when
I
chaired
a
group
of
civil
servants
in
Whitehall,
charged
with
the
job
of
preparing
a
Green
Paper
which
emerged
in
March
1979
as
the
then
Labour
Government’s
response
to
the
introduction
by
Clement
Freud
of
a
Private
Member’s
Bill
designed
to
establish
a
Freedom
of
Introduction
regime.
I
discerned
then
the
same
difficulties
experi-
enced
by
the
Government
of
the
day
in
coming
forward
with
their
own
proposals
as
the
present
Government
apparently
finds
today.
The
workshop
papers
themselves
fall
into
three
categories.
There
are
those
To continue reading
Request your trial