Taking a leak
It seems that more and more "reports" are being leaked to the press these days. They are usually areas of public concern over the effects that institutions or corporations can have over our health well-being. For example, today's leak is over passive smoking that indicates a health risk to others. Just because someone has taken the trouble to write in a glossy report seems to increase it's credibility to the press. How on earth can passive smoking not be bad for the health?
But more significantly, I'd like to know what the current statistics on leaked reports. A woman was arrested last week over allegations of information incontinence and she worked in government offices. By leaking these documents does this assume that they would not have otherwise been available in the public domain? Perhaps someone thought that the report might have suffered in the hands of political censors before being made pubic, or perhaps it was a pre-emptive leak before the government spin machine could whisk up an opposing view to counterbalance the report. And then there's always Jo Moore's infamous diversionary tactics: "Sounds like a good day to bury some bad news". The cynic would say, and I am, that a recent example of this was Blair disappearing to Africa to champion The Good Fight against all that's wrong in Ethiopia (where do we start…) at the same time that the ISG published their report. Coincidence?
Anyway, back to leaks. Does this seeming increase of leaks suggest that there are more people willing to break the rules if they believe that the rules are wrong. Has this government created such an environment of distrust in the machinery of government that it can no longer be relied upon serve the best interests of the people of this country? They seem to have triggered spat a white-collar and blue-rinse paper vigilantes! The pen really is mightier than the sword and these people should be applauded for their (direct) action. Sometimes they will get it wrong and bad information will become public ammunition. What would have happened if some of the war's "intelligence" reports had been leaked. Then the spin of Blair would not have become so credible and perhaps this mess could have