AN UNLIKELY HERO

Maybe it`s me; maybe I`m just getting older and maybe I`m getting more grumpy as the years go by. But I do find I get more angry with more things that flit through what`s left of my consciousness.

The latest example is an attempt - which looks as if it might succeed - to exempt Members of both Houses of Parliament from the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Now, this legislation meant that Mr and Mrs Joe Public could, if they were so inclined, request information from just about every kind of taxpayer-funded organisation as a reasonable, sensible and much needed bit of accountability as to how those public bodies are spending taxpayers` money. In the few years that the Act has been in business, it has produced many examples of detailed public expenditure which might otherwise have been buried....or denied on the basis that it was `confidential.`

So far, so good. Until, that is, a little known backbench Conservative MP introduces a Bill before Parliament to exempt Members of the Commons and the Lords from the provisions of the Act, on the spurious basis that correspondence between an MP and his or her constituent should remain private....despite the fact that such correspondence is protected by the Data Protection Act anyway. No, the truth seems to be an attempt to hide from public gaze the amount of `remuneration` - and especially expenses - claimed annually by MPs and Peers of the Realm.

Along comes Norman Baker, LibDem MP for Lewes in Sussex and, early on in the life of this Bill, he smells a rat. It`s not the first time I`ve mentioned Norman in despatches - he is regularly verbally assailed in the Commons because he raises awkward questions and doggedly pursues his enquiries, which include an ongoing inquisition into the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr. David Kelly - the most tragic victim of the Iraq dodgy dossier fiasco.

Norman and a few of his chums don`t like the idea of exempting themselves from public scrutiny, so they `talked out` the first stage of the Bill when it came before Parliament a couple of weeks ago, which meant that the Bill did not proceed to the Lords for consideration. On Friday, the Bill was introduced yet again and despite yet more heroic efforts from Norman and the likes of the admirable David Winnick (Labour) and the pugnacious Richard Sheppard (Conservative) the cross-party opposition to the Bill was this time defeated.

What makes it more troublesome is that both the Government and the official Opposition remained `neutral` on the matter, thus giving, I suspect, tacit approval. The Bill now goes to the Lords and it is hoped that their Lordships will display more sensitivity, more principle and more moral courage than, (with the noble exception of Norman and his friends,) the self-serving lapdogs in the Commons who seem neither to notice nor to care that those of us who pay their inflated salaries and expenses will simply hold them in even more contempt than we do already.

I`ll watch that space with more than a little interest, but I fear that the outcome will be yet another example of why my respect for our elected representatives would probably, if I were young enough, drive me seriously to consider emigration. New Zealand anyone?