The circulation and use of political information is an ever-evolving practice

The story about Geoff Hoon and a memo about Iraq is a blast from the past but the broader shift to digital and informal decision-making is bad news for the public, writes Sean O’Grady

Sir Tony Blair, still causing controversy (PA Wire)

There is a great irony that the government that passed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in 2000 should have spent so much time evading its application. Yet that was very much the ethos of Tony Blair’s administration, and the claims made by former Labour defence secretary Geoff Hoon would seem to corroborate its taste for secrecy.

The motto that the formidable New Labour machine carried from opposition into government did seem to be that the ends always justify the means. They were ruthless, and didn’t like leaving fingerprints.

Specifically, Hoon claims he was told by Downing Street – though not Blair personally – to “burn” a memo that suggested the invasion of Iraq could be illegal. In Hoon’s memoir, published recently, he tells of how his own adviser was told “in no uncertain terms” to get rid of a memo written by the then attorney general, Lord Goldsmith.