MANY people will be disappointed that, rather than a Bill to bring in the Freedom of Information Act envisaged in Labour's manifesto, they have taken the longer White Paper route to at last blowing away the culture of secrecy that surrounds government and officialdom in this country.

But, at least, the long overdue parliamentary process to that end is under way.

For, though secrecy is an unnatural bedfellow of democracy, it has permeated the government and the running of thousands of public bodies in this country for generations.

And this is when most other established democracies have had the "right to know" enshrined in their constitutions for years, mocking Britain's fond claims to having the model democracy for the rest of the world.

Good government is open government - simply because it is then far more accountable to the people it serves.

And this should apply right across the board - from Westminster to our town halls and from public services like the NHS to the nationalised industries. It is, therefore, pleasing to see that the White Paper proposes that this scrutiny should run the whole gamut, even as far as the privatised utilities and some private sector bodies carrying out duties on behalf of the government.

The ideal of a Freedom of Information Act is to give everyone the statutory right to know about the information and records held by public bodies.

Yet, while that basic principle ought to have been established in our democracy long ago, the reform, when it comes, will require a sea change in the attitudes of those in public authority, both locally and nationally.

For minimal disclosure and, hence, minimal accountability - the very stuff of "internal inquiries," committees that meet in private and faceless bureaucracy - have been their way for decades.

The Sir Humphreys may now be squirming at the thought of a Freedom of Information Act's searchlight being shone upon them, but instinctively they will be doing all they can to dim it - and that the government must resist.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.