ABSTRACT
The quotation does not denote hostility to FoI; for the fifteen years I worked in British local and central government I was relatively unusual in being an enthusiast for greater openness. But the reasons for my enthusiasm were slightly unusual: while the proponents of FoI argued almost exclusively in terms of ‘the public’s right to know’, I thought it equally important that secret government tends to be inefficient government. This has left me interested in the motivation behind the recent legislation.
