Weekly Topic

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

A new fortnight, a new bi-weekly [Poll #1639356]
(Feel free to suggest more).

 

Comments

Re: The role of governmen: cliff notes

[torpidai.livejournal.com]

Odd you should mention the web presence, for some reason this country felt the need for each council to pay for it's own design, build and hosting, did an abysmal job and many councils costed that at over £10 per hit, hell that's almost an hours work to the lazy overpaid deskjockeys at our council office, though you have much more chance of getting the correct information if you looked it up yourself.

Transparency? rly? the last lot (Who did appear to have lots of cash to waste, till near on the end of their days spending it on sandblasting private homes and rebuilding the yard walls) seem to have made public council meetings a private affair, often having to pre-book a seat, if you wish to ask a question then it must be written, handed in 3 days in advance, and pre-aproved before you're allowed to raise it. (What happens if something "Comes up" at that meeting? Too late, if it's in the counsellors interest, that motion will be passed, Joe Public has no say!

What's your research for? college? or other?

Re: The role of governmen: cliff notes

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

Research: International grad degree (so, yeah, college, but also for an article in a periodical from my field)

The meetings are public records, whether they are in papers or, as in some US states, taped. In the UK the law is to make transcripts available from council meetings and the like. There are actually equally strict laws on citizen's partaking in meetings however. In many US states, civilians aren't allowed in legislative meetings, this comes down to their elective representatives. What you are allowed to do is to vote, and to get the transcripts after meetings.
There are many decent sites you can go to, which I'm sure you may already know. This (http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/) I guess is one of them. Viewing it all certainly takes time, and I guess checking on the frequency of government internal audits would also be a good way to check credibility.

Re: The role of governmen: cliff notes

[torpidai.livejournal.com]

yeah, I'm aware that government has various sites for National government transparency, and national government now having many of their meetings televised I guess are under closer scrutiny, however local government meetings (Council meets) are the ones I was talking about, Transcriptions there are limited by the ability of the secretary of the days competance in the field of note-taking, and whatever the chair decides can go in said notes.

I have on a number of occasions, sent e-mail to Mp's using the site theyworkforyou.com and never once recieved a reply, no matter how civil I am when writing to them. Once voted in these people are a law unto themselves, the voting public won't have a chance, hell most of them can't get their own declarations of interests completed correctly, what chance of them getting anything else right when they are in such positions?

Re: The role of governmen: cliff notes

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

Local gov. can be tricky, because if they're rarely checked by a central organ they slack on their own laws. The thing you can do is to lean on them, I've done this plenty, but I agree it's a bother. Basically, go to the places where you're supposed to be able to see transcripts, talk to people, ask, interview even. Write to central agencies that you think stuff is not right, but do it with as much back up (even in the form of name lists, if you're really disgruntled). The thing to check out is: 1. can you as a citizen get to the information with reasonable ease? Is the information accurate? Do you get replies if you ask questions? etc etc
If not, start making a hassle and report them. I would also use the media, by raising particular agency names and names of employees, you will get their attention.
This type of thing happens when government gets de-centralized to a fault, and it can be a pain in the arse.
The thing to remember is to really know the laws and statutes, to customer-test them in particular places and to review it clearly, with names and places in as many public ways as possible, with as much evidence as possible. I've seen local agencies clean up their act withing hours after realizing that there was noise which might attract the eye of their central mother agency.