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Recent Posts
- Vexatious requests guidance: weakening our power to make the state speak
- The temptation of celebrity power: the Police and Jimmy Savile
- Steve Jobs, Martin Heidegger, Apple and the new culture of technology
- What is the university in an age of social media?
- How the free press threatens the UK’s media and political establishment
Archives
Category Archives: transparency
Vexatious requests guidance: weakening our power to make the state speak
The long awaited guidance on vexatious requests has arrived. The guidance follows from two distinct events. The first was the Parliament’s review of FOIA during which the MoJ presented evidence that suggested council’s were limited in their ability to deal … Continue reading
The temptation of celebrity power: the Police and Jimmy Savile
The temptation of celebrity affects us all. In this regard, the police are not alone. Like many others, the police succumbed to the temptation of Jimmy Savile’s celebrity status. They wanted to get to know a celebrity and a celebrity … Continue reading
Posted in philosophy, public sector, transparency
Tagged Jimmy Savile, Scotland Yard, Sexual abuse, Sun, West Yorkshire Police
2 Comments
How the free press threatens the UK’s media and political establishment
As we await the Leveson report, expected later this year, the debate over press regulation has intensified. The allegations that have emerged after the Jimmy Savile investigations, Tom Watson’s question in Parliament, the resignation of the Director General of the … Continue reading
The death of Daniel Morgan and the (im)possibility of Justice
A man who really fights for justice must lead a private, not a public, life if he is to survive for even a short time.” —Socrates, in Plato’s Apology, 31d–32a Daniel Morgan died with an axe in his face. We … Continue reading
Posted in Government, local government, philosophy, public sector, statesmanship, transparency
Tagged Crown Prosecution Service, current-events, Daniel Morgan, Leveson Inquiry, Metropolitan Police, Natural justice, police investigations, Political Justice, political legitimacy, political repression, Politics, United States
18 Comments
It didn’t start with Savile: BBC’s internal crisis has been brewing for years
The headlines about the Jimmy Savile scandal have rocked the BBC to its core. They have revealed that the BBC, long considered the standard in British Broadcasting, if not the world, has a corporate cultural crisis. Some observers will believe … Continue reading
Posted in Government, public sector, transparency
Tagged BBC, George Entwistle, Jimmy Savile, leadership, Meirion Jones, Newsnight, Panorama, Savile, Violence and Abuse
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No time for history? Take a video tour of a County Record Office
In a previous blog, on Jimmy Savile and the Shaw report I mentioned the need to visit the County Record Office to know how our collective memory was stored. For many people, this may prove difficult because of the … Continue reading
Posted in Government, local government, localism, public sector, scholarship, transparency
Tagged County Record Office, Essex, Leicester, Leicestershire, Rutland, video, Youtube
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Jimmy Savile and the cult of celebrity: how could he not get away with it?
As more details emerge about Jimmy Savile’s behaviour as a sexual predator, what is becoming clear is that his status as a celebrity helped to protect him. The question most people have asked, as the scale of his crimes is … Continue reading
Posted in censorship, philosophy, privacy, transparency
Tagged BBC, Celebrity, Celebrity culture, Coleen Nolan, entertainment, Famous for being famous, Jimmy Savile, People, Politics, Savile
5 Comments
Finding Jimmy Savile: the Shaw report haunts England’s Archives
Finding Jimmy Savile: the Shaw report haunts England’s Archives The name of the title is instantly familiar to readers in the United Kingdom. Jimmy Savile has been in the news because he has been accused of molesting young girls. The … Continue reading
Posted in privacy, public sector, transparency
Tagged Archive, BBC, Coleen Nolan, current-events, England, Jimmy Savile, Savile, Scotland Yard, Scottish Parliament, Top of the Pops
7 Comments
Has the UK media’s abuse of the public interest stifled democracy?
Over the last few weeks, we have seen the Sun newspaper publish photographs of a naked Prince Harry. They justified publishing the photographs as being in the public interest. Their defenders supported the decision by arguing that Prince Harry is … Continue reading
Open data creates inefficient government and why this is good
The promise that open data will improve government efficiency is misplaced. Every administration claims it will make government effective and efficient. We had Clinton’s Reinventing Government and Bush’s reforms after 11 September. Neither has delivered as it promised. In large … Continue reading
