Jump to full article: Electronic Telegraph (uk), 2008-10-10
Intro: "An Ecclestone" is cockney argot for a million pounds - the sum that Bernie Ecclestone, then in charge of Formula 1 motor racing, gave to the Labour Party in 1997. Months later, Tony Blair, then Prime Minister, changed Government policy to Mr Ecclestone's advantage: Formula 1 would be exempt from the general ban on cigarette advertising at sporting events. . . .
Was the million pound donation enough to persuade Mr Blair to change Labour's policy? At the time, Mr Blair denied it.
Famously, he said he was a "pretty straight sort of guy". Most people believed him. Documents obtained by The Sunday Telegraph under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) nevertheless show conclusively that while Mr Blair may have had many political virtues, being straight with the public was not one of them. . .
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It is a serious indictment of the way FOI operates that it should have taken Christopher Hastings, our reporter, more than two years to obtain the relevant documents. We wonder what other truths the guardians of "freedom of information" are protecting from public scrutiny until they can no longer harm the Government.
The public ought to be told, now. But we can be sure that they won't be.
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