Handcrafted information from Malvern

I included an item in this week’s VolResource email newsletter on the government’s ‘Power of Information Task Force’ before I had a chance to read the speech from minister Tom Watson. This amuses me for a number of reasons.

Firstly the effort that has gone in to giving web links to as many items in the speech as possible – so much that it is a little distracting when reading if you start following them!

Secondly this excerpt: “Take a motor industry analogy, in some ways the policy process is a bit like building a Morgan [External website] in Malvern [External website]: a handful of people taking years to create beautiful, hand-crafted model.” Apart from the fact that he then implies he wants boring mass-produced and short-lived policies to replace tailored quality, given a strong south westerly the Morgan factory is in spitting distance of VolResource towers. Pity the web link for Malvern doesn’t go my hobby site.

Despite that, the speech is worth a read. Also see the interim reports on progress on recommendations of the Power of Information review.

UPDATE: for some reason they moved the speech – link now corrected.