I've been having an argument with Seamus here over legislators and who is qualified to be a lawmaker. I firmly believe that the salary of a legislator must be sufficient to attract those with sufficient expertise to be in a position to make good laws. Jim Allister, no matter that I disagree with him fundamentally on many key issues, is a good legislator, and the fact that he is probably taking a substantial pay cut to be in politics is not inconsequential. Many of his erstwhile colleagues in the DUP, are not doing my argument any favours.

One of the most effective and most civicly useful Acts on the statute book is the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I love it, I use it from time to time, and found it particularly useful during a dispute I had with a public body (who insisted they weren't a public body until I complained and the Information Commissioner corrected their awful legal opinion).

It was always worrying that the First Minister doesn't like us knowing what the state is up to. While the Government has ruled out curtailing the current legislation, Northern Ireland has its own remit over FOI, and could diverge from the UK scheme.

Follow up:

In that light, this press release worries me.

hardly a week goes by when various executive departments are not peppered with costly requests for information from the maverick MEP

How does Sammy know that? Jim goes to press with a lot of it, but it's not worded like that is it? Surely this would cover any concerns our Sammy has.

virtually none of them of any relevance to his job as a European representative and have no importance other than acting as a fishing expedition for a man on the fringe of politics and desperately trying to dig dirt on others.

None of my requests have been related to my degree courses, or my employment. It's not there for professional inquiries, its there for everyone to use. "Fishing expedition[s]" aren't prohibited and neither should they be.

From such a safe position he can despatch(sic) all the Freedom of Information requests he wants, knowing that he himself will not be subjected to the same rigour(sic) as those he peppers with demands for answers and whom he berates in the press for not answering quickly enough.

The same applies to me. I'm not subject to the act, does that make my right to use it any less legitimate? And if Departments aren't answering requests within the statutory time, why wouldn't they be berated?

Mr. Allister has been exercised lately concerning Special Advisors and has demanded to know, amongst other things, if any familial relationship exists between advisors and their ministers. As someone who’s made such a hue and cry about this issue, one would assume that Mr. Allister is himself abiding by the seemingly high standards he is setting for other people.

Indeed he has. But Sammy is making a distinction here that he shouldn't be. Special advisors are not secretaries or researchers to their employers, they are political policy advisors appointed by Ministers at public expense, and are Civil Servants. Their role is different, and as such their terms, conditions and responsibilities are very different. To try to equate the two, as Sammy does, is clumsy.

It is a sad state of affairs when we have to try to protect the law from the law makers. But if the DUP try to hide the state's actions from the public by trying to curtail the FOI Act, then that's just what we'll have to do. The noises coming from the DUP on this issue don't bode well for the future of Government in Northern Ireland.