Amess: Questions on Israel, the Middle East and antisemitism
Here is a link to David Amess’s written questions page on theyworkforyou.com.
Since October 15th, he has written 104 questions. 26 of these, accounting for one quarter, are questions regarding issues in the Middle East, mostly concerning Israel and the West Bank. A further 11 questions, which is 10.5% of the total since October 15th, are regarding antisemitism.
Whilst the Middle East is important, and so is combating antisemitism, do they really warrant this amount of his time?
Isn’t he pursuing his own interests, as secretary of the parliamentary group of the Conservative Friends of Israel, rather than those of his constituents?
Are the people of Southend West overly concerned with British-Israeli relations?
Press Offices and abusing FOI
Across the country thousands of press officers for local councils, education authorities, NHS trusts and Government departments have pretty much given up answering all but the most simple requests, insisting instead that the journalist submits a Freedom of Information request.
Fleet Street Blues highlights the abuse of FOI requests by press offices as a way of avoiding or delaying the release of information to journalists.
My experiences have been mixed. Some POs pretty much treat any queries, sometimes the most basic of statistics, as FOI requests, making my life 20 working days longer than it should be. Other times they take the piss by using the full 20 days to tell me that they don’t hold the information.
However, I also have good times with POs, where they’re quick, succinct and co-operative. But, to be honest, it’s mostly the former.
Quote of the day: Berlusconi
“They paint me as a monster, but I don’t think I am one – firstly because I am good-looking and secondly because I’m a decent chap”
Silvio Berlusconi after being smacked in the mouth.
