On 19 March 2012 12:49, Norman Gray <[email protected]> wrote: > Whether or not this is a good way to flag up something that businesses need > to be aware of, that's quite a bit of my licence fee you're spending, there. >
If you're going to take that tack, I'm sure it was all funded out of my license fee and yours was spent on that new talent show 'The Voice', covering some sporting event or some other thing I'd rather they didn't do. > The BBC's motto is something along the lines of "to educate, inform, and > entertain". It doesn't usually do the latter bespoke. > I was going for the 'inform' part, maybe some 'educate' as well. If you read my note to them on 6th May, following their response, you will see I described their response as 'interesting and useful', not 'entertaining and fun'. You will note from their response that fulfilling this request allowed them to discover that one of their offices was breaking the law and rectify the situation before TV Licensing (which is run by a private company profiting from the public purse) and drag them to court. The FoI is there to allow us to query the bodies that spend our money and act on our behalf. Just because you don't see or disagree with the rationale behind a request does not invalidate that request or make it a waste of time and money. I note from the link in your sig that you are a researcher in astronomy, presumably you are in receipt of research grants and other bursaries some, if not all, of which are from the public purse. I'm sure there are many people who would question why we are spending our taxes on that when it could be spent on developing new therapies to prevent or delay the degenerative conditions that are robbing many people of an active old age and filling our hospital beds and nursing homes. Just because they cannot see or disagree with the rationale for your work doesn't invalidate that work or make it a waste of time and money. Stephen -- It's better to ask a silly question than to make a silly assumption. http://stephensorablog.blogspot.com/ | http://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenboothuk | Skype: stephenbooth_uk Apparently I'm a "Eierlegende Woll-Milch-Sau", I think it was meant as a compliment. _______________________________________________ developers-public mailing list [email protected] https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public Unsubscribe: https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/options/developers-public/archive%40mail-archive.com
