Another day....another bad news story from Planet Parliament.
Public dismay and disgust about the blatant misuse of MPs' allowances and expenses has turned to disbelief at the parliamentary authorities' desperate rearguard legal action to prevent disclosure of potentially damaging information demanded under Freedom of Information legislation.
This morning's instalment further beggars belief. Apparently the general public must be prevented from learning more about expenditure of taxpayers' money by seven Welsh MPs on the production and distribution of their annual report. Unsurprisingly this argument received short shrift from the Information Commissioner so, bit by bit, ever more information about MPs' expenses makes its way into the public domain.
These increasingly pathetic attempts at 'protecting privacy' are ever more reminiscent of the Nixon Administration's feverish - and ultimately self-defeating - legal manoeuvres to prevent public disclosure of the contents of the secretly recorded Oval Office tapes during the Watergate crisis.
The lesson of history is clear - there is no substitute for open, total disclosure and full transparency.
