Every month, we’ll publish the power rankings of all the leading lights in the party based on our readers’ responses. The results will be published tomorrow, so have your say now. Who’s up, who’s down…
Click here to fill in the survey. We’re offering £10 off your Guido membership once you complete it. If you’re not a Guido member yet, that’s a whole month as a Co-Conspirator for free. So click that link now, rank the key players, and get tomorrow’s news, today…
Labour is considering lowering the cost ceiling for processing Freedom of Information (FoI) requests, using ‘spiralling administrative costs’ as the latest excuse to limit government transparency. Obviously blaming China wasn’t good enough…
According to briefings in the FT:
“The soaring number of requests comes against a backdrop of heavily constrained Whitehall budgets… the cost threshold for complying with a request is set at £600 for central government and £450 for other public bodies, with staff time charged at a flat rate of £25 an hour. This equates to 24 hours of work, or 3.5 working days, for Whitehall departments and 18 hours of work for other government agencies.”
Lowering the cost ceiling would effectively let departments turn down what they claim would be more complex or time-consuming requests without having to find a specific exemption. In reality, it would inevitably be a useful way to bury inconvenient and embarrassing material from the public. This is a government which makes the hilarious claim it has “strengthened many transparency and disclosure standards“. Total nonsense…
Businesses struggling with the ethics of engaging with the party currently leading in the polls are in luck. The ‘Leading on the Line’ strategy course is now available, for the small sum of £150 per person, to coach anyone afraid of losing their integrity by ‘engaging’ with Reform UK. Apparently Reform’s plan isn’t just about winning an election and governing, it’s about “shifting culture, normalising exclusionary ideas, and changing what feels acceptable“. A threat so serious it can only be countered with a two-hour Zoom call and a company card…
“Many organisations are facing growing pressure about whether and how to engage Reform UK.
Too often, these conversations are treated as if there is no real choice. But engagement is never neutral. Reform’s strategy is not only about winning votes. It is also about shifting culture, normalising exclusionary ideas, and changing what feels acceptable in public life.
[…]
That’s why Jo Atkins-Potts and I have created Leading on the Line: Engaging power without losing your integrity.
This 2-hour online strategy clinic is particularly relevant for people responsible for navigating external relationships, public positioning, and engagement with power – including those working in policy, public affairs, campaigns, communications, and governance – along with senior leaders and trustees holding organisational risk and accountability.
We’ll look at:
• How to make clearer engagement decisions
• Where your red lines are
• How to assess risk beyond reputation
• What practical safeguards look like”
Retain your ‘integrity’ for just £150. Bargain…
The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England has voted to hold interest rates at 3.75%. A unanimous vote…
Sarah Pochin at Reform Scotland’s manifesto launch event: “I really wanted to come on in a Reform tartan burka, but apparently I wasn’t allowed… One day let’s do one of these events not live-streamed. We’ll do all the naughty stuff…”