MPs’ expenses and Freedom of Information

Amidst all the justifiable anger over the revelations of MPs’ expenses it is worth remembering that we owe our knowledge of these issues not to the Daily Telegraph, not to the person who leaked them and certainly not to the House of Commons authorities who tried desperately first to suppress them and then to exempt themselves from the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act.

We owe it to Heather Brookes who made the original Freedom of Information request and who was determined enough to go all the way to the High Court in London to secure this disclosure.

One day she may get the thanks she deserves.