More Straw castles

A day after the news that Jack Straw had vetoed disclosure of Cabinet minutes on the invasion of Iraq, the great man has an article in the Guardian today singing the praises of the Labour Government. "Our record isn't perfect. But talk of a police state is daft" is the paper's title. His coda reads "When people come to assess the choices available at the next election, I will stand proudly on Labour's record, from the Lawrence inquiry, which reported 10 years ago this week, progressive legislation on race and gender, to devolution, the Human Rights Act, Freedom of Information and much more, and be ready to be judged on it. I hope that in the final reckoning even some of our harshest critics will concede that the Labour government has done more than any before it to extend liberties and to constrain government."

This is really a chutzpah. So I sent the following letter in, a revamp of a previous longer epistle placed on my blog yesterday I think:

Jack Straw deserves a medal for gall. A day after he vetoed the release of Cabinet minutes about the invasion of Iraq, a self-serving action in the light of his heavy personal involvement in the decision-making, overruling the order of the Information Commissioner and Tribunal that disclosure was in the "very powerful public interest," he claims credit for the Freedom of Information legislation. Yes, Labour started out well in 1997 in passing the Human Rights Act, in devolution and some aspects of race and gender legislation, but this record needs to be set against a creeping and significant extension of executive powers and the obverse of open administration of which the Straw veto is a striking instance.