A government that is responsive and accountable to its citizens is a
cornerstone of democracy. To be able to give our free consent to a
government, we must be informed and have the ability to inform ourselves
as to what the government is doing in our names and with our money.
Therefore, a freedom of information act is needed so that we as citizens,
not subjects, can exercise our informed consent. To the extent that we
lack information and cannot find out information, we lose our ability to
give our free consent. As we lose that ability, we lose our ability to
function as citizens and become subjects.
The government intended the act to make government, and its organisation
including the NHS, to be open and accountable. The act intends to shift
the balance between the individual and the state towards the individual by
making the state more accountable to the people.
If you think freedom is costly, try the alternative.
Lawrence W. Serewicz
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
All archives of messages are stored permanently and are
available to the world wide web community at large at
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/data-protection.html
If you wish to leave this list please send the command
leave data-protection to [log in to unmask]
All user commands can be found at : -
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/help/commandref.htm
Any queries about sending or receiving message please send to the list owner
[log in to unmask]
(all commands go to [log in to unmask] not the list please)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
