Freedom of Information denied

Christine Grahame, the SNP MSP, has had a series of requests made under the Freedom of Information act refused, and has also suffered as a result of a bizarre ruling made by the Scottish Information Commissioner.

Acting on a tip off, after having received information from a well connected source, Grahame made a request under the Freedom of Information act, to every Police Special Branch Office in Scotland
for the number of files which the police held in which the title contained the words 'Scottish National Party'. The police refused to supply the information.

Grahame then appealed to the Scottish Information Commissioner, who gave the quite remarkable judgement that releasing the information would be 'contrary to public interest'! Quite how this is the case is not explained.

Of course, were it to become public knowledge that the Police are spending large quantities of their resources on attempting to monitor and subvert the true political beliefs of the SNP, then I do believe that the public would become very interested indeed.