BBC Blog Network

User Profile

JimMatthew

Listed below are comments made by JimMatthew between Tuesday, 23rd September 2008 and Friday, 22nd May 2009.

«Newer
Older»

Rebel three seek breakaway support 10:34am on 22 May 2009 I am no expert, but as a fan, I do want to see closer racing and overtaking that doesn´t only take place during pit stops, more teams competing could only be an improvement. In PR terms, in the current economic climate, being seen to try to control costs has to good for the sport too. But, wouldn´t it be better to tackle this in a different way? How about only allowing "approved" engines that conform to standards in terms of size, mounting points etc and are therefore interchangeable. If engine manufacturers were then required to make their engines available to any team at a capped price (or even leased on a race-by-race basis) wouldn´t that make for a more even playing-field? Ferrari etc would obviously be too proud to use another manufacturer´s engine, but would either have to improve their own if they were uncompetetive, or would see every other team start using them if they were the best! The same rules could be applied to other key components as well. This would retain the elements of competetive design amongst manufacturers, whilst allowing teams to pick and choose from a selection of price-capped, off-the-shelf components and by adding their own aerodynamics and other tweaks, produce reasonably priced, competetive cars.
Ministers approve FOI answers 02:29am on 17 Dec 2008 I can't say what the current position is (having been sacked for trying to protect FOI by leaking to the BBC 18 months ago - or at least that's how my central government department employers (obviously not Home Office!) chose to see my actions), but the Home Office were always seen as a bit of a joke for needing Ministerial agreement to every FOI response and (in the early days), wanting MoJ (DCA as was) to approve every single response, no matter how mundane. Don't tar all Civil Servants or departments with the Home Office brush!
Meeting the meta-request 4:43pm on 24 Sep 2008 .... and if the journalist was concerned that the public interest test was done wrong, too much weight was given to 3rd party opinions etc, then that is what the internal review/Information Commissioner appeal (about the original request) is for.
Meeting the meta-request 3:11pm on 23 Sep 2008 It isn't often I agree with public authorities, but in this instance, I do. What does the journalist expect to get? Criticism of how lazy he is for continually indulging in fishing trips instead of doing some proper investigative journalism? Data Protection Act Subject Access Request, FOI won't get him that material. Discussions of withheld material - subject to the same exemption/exception that applied in the first place. I suspect the latter, in which case it is no more than an attempt to find out more about the withheld information. And what is that, if not vexatious?

«Newer
Older»

^ Back to top

BBC MMVI

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

BBC.co.uk

BBC Blog Network

Find and talk to the BBC's bloggers.

User Profile

JimMatthew