# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In the publicity surrounding his recently published memoir 'A Journey' Tony Blair was asked if there was anything he regretted from his time in office. Cleverly dodging the obvious answer, 'Iraq', our former Prime Minister surprised the watching masses by answering: 'The Freedom of Information Act'.

Those watching probably responded to this with a big yawn but Mr Blair was 100% right: the FOI Act drives many of us to distraction.

I'm not going to get into the morality of the issue; I personally believe that the more information in the public realm the better but for Local Government staff the morality of the issue is basically besides the point; practically it is a nightmare.

The real problem is that many of the requests we receive are not from concerned citizens but from seriously lazy and, dare I say, incompetent journalists. Not all journalists are lazy or incompetent and some who use the FoI Act do so with devastating effectiveness.

However, there are another category and they are just a drain on the public purse.

These so-called 'journalists' waste hours of council time (ironically often searching for examples of council staff wasting their time) and never are they actually searching for information or investigating a story.

Instead, they pre-write their stories and then use the FoI Act to trawl for a fact or two that will justify their prejudices or exaggerations.

Friends and colleagues have moaned to me about this for ages and so a few weeks ago I asked some of them to send me examples from their authorities of this lazy journalism. In the tradition of FoI I've copied some of these below... See if you can guess the story:

Please provide the number of Diversity Officers employed by the council

Please provide the total annual cost of Diversity Officers in 2009/10. This should include, but is not restricted to, salaries, expenses, pensions, travel costs and other remuneration.

Please provide details of the number of staff with the terms "climate change" or "global warming" in their job title or job description.

a) The job titles and job descriptions for each staff member included above

b) The total cost of staff with "climate change" or "global warming" in their job title or job description. This should include, but is not restricted to, salaries, expenses, pensions, travel costs and other remuneration.

Has the council made any arrangements or been alerted to arrangements made by the registry office which allows registry office staff to opt out of performing civil partnerships on religious grounds

Was any same sex couple refused a civil partnership on premises run by the local registry office because individual registrars refused to preside over the service. Can you please state on how many occasions this happened?

Has the organisation encouraged employees to attend any workshops and or training courses and or role playing sessions designed to improve their understanding of equality and or diversity and or inclusion issues.

Does the council keep documentation which outlines the rules governing the flying of flags and or the number of occasions where flags have been flown

Can the council please state on how many occasions it has flown the 'Union Jack' flag. Can it please provide a list of occasions when the Union Jack has been flown. If the council has never flown the Union Jack during this period could it please explain why

What is the current highest weekly and or monthly level of housing benefit currently being paid to a claimant and or their landlord?

I am writing to obtain details of the amount of money spent on refreshments. This would include things such as snacks, alcohol and biscuits that are given for free to councillors before or after meetings. It would also include instances where food and drink was provided for entertaining purposes. It would nottherefore include cases where food was brought in to be sold

Under the Freedom of Information Act, please can you tell me whether your council has undergone a "rebranding" exercise since 1st January, 2007?
If so, please provide the costs and a brief summary of the exercise.

The number of staff employed by your local authority in any of the following roles:
climate change officer / worker / champion,
global warming officer / worker / champion,
carbon emissions officer / worker / champion
low carbon officer / worker / champion
carbon offsetting officer / worker / champion
sustainability officer / worker / champion

These are just a small selection of what I've been sent from a very small sample size. Anyone want to guess what stories followed from these FoI requests?

I've also asked my colleagues to nominate the laziest, and most time wasting, journalists. I'll try and collate something for later in the week; if anyone has any to add to this list please do comment below or drop me an e-mail at: welovelocalgovernment@gmail.com

Explore posts in the same categories: We love the Council

You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In the publicity surrounding his recently published memoir 'A Journey' Tony Blair was asked if there was anything he regretted from his time in office. Cleverly dodging the obvious answer, 'Iraq', our former Prime Minister surprised the watching masses by answering: 'The Freedom of Information Act'.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Online or Offline making money is indeed a hard job for some and for some its easy, well not in every case so far.

These are the best options to make money online.

1. Vlogging / Blogging :

This is a one of the most rapidly succeeding network, now your thinking of someone picking up a cam and talking to it by holding em on hands ,well it all seems a bit fussy but the best part is that google offers a lot of money from Adsense that can be intergreted to your Blog website or your Youtube channel .This Adsense works based on the Ads it views on your video or the Clicks you get on the Ads that are viewed on your website. But for the approval of Adsense you need to get a minimum of 10K total views on your Youtube videos and for the website you need about 30+ contents and a minimum of 30+ visitors on your Website per day.With these Ad clicks and Ad views you can make a lot of money, but you need a bit of hard work to setup your site and for making up the videos that should be uploaded on youtube. Adsense is a great way to earn money.Similar to Adsense you can also monetize your website with other service . Click here to check out the other services .

2. Drive for Uber or Lyft.

Companies like Uber and Lyft offer a great opportunity to make some quick cash. You'll need a clean driving record, a fairly new car and the authorization to work wherever it is that you live. If you have all of those things, you can work when it's feasible for you, whether that's in the middle of the day during rush hour, or in the wee hours of the night on a weekend. The choice is yours.

3. Become a market research participant.

In college I participated in loads of market research. It's fairly quick money for not a lot of work. Companies looking for consumers' opinions on a variety of products and services put you in a room to garner your opinion. That's it.

This often involves writing or stating your opinion, answering polls or surveys, or breaking off in a discussion group. The mechanics don't matter much. The point is that you can rely on it from time to time.

Being honest, it turned out pretty good for me. Its a great way to make money, all you have to do is you need about $30 to $100 to startup and you can earn upto 100k with it. Its simple and easy.

How it works ? most of you might be thinking of it, there are a few waves in which your name should appear in, for that you need to give away a few money through PayPal or other sources. And as your name appears there new customers will be able to send you money through your referred link.

check it out now! LetsMultiply

5. Email Marketing

Email marketing is at the heart of every successful endeavor on the web. For those serious about making money online, email marketing is certainly where it's at. But it has to be done the right way. Before you even try to market anything to anyone via an email list, be sure that they're people that subscribed and opted in directly to you.

When you try to market to people via email out of the blue, you won't find as much success. But, if those email subscribers are actively and keenly interested in what you have to say, and they signed up directly through your blog or site, your success rates will be much higher.

6. Do freelance work

Finding freelance work is easy if you have good skillset. There are a number of websites that have small freelance tasks available for people with varying skills, which can pay anywhere between $5 and $100.
Do keep in mind that you will only be paid after you have finished and submitted your work, and it has been approved by the person who posted the task. You might need to revise the work multiple times to suit the requirements of the client.

If you want to start freelancing, the first thing you should do is create a Paypal account as most clients prefer to make payments through it. Once you have an account, you can sign up on freelance work websites-we recommend trying outfiverr.com, upwork.com, freelancer.com, loopgeeks.com and worknhire.com.

7. Become a Captcha Solver

If you have more time then you can add further income in your pocket by working as a captcha solver. This is the one of easiest way to earn money online.

As a captcha solver, you need to read the captcha images & type the exact characters. You need to be very fast in order to earn better income.

You can get paid up to $2 for every 1000 captchas you solve.

8. Affiliate marketing

The Affiliate marketing is the best way for anyone to start earning money online. This requires zero investment & you can use your blog or even your social media platform like Twitter, Facebook to promote & earn money. There are many bloggers who are earning thousands sitting at home just with affiliate marketing which is a great thing.

There are hundreds of online merchants like Flipkart, Amazon, eBay, Clickbank, CJ etc. where you can signup & promote their products.In AM you will have to simply help customers to buy the right product by creating a simple website & in return you can earn 4% to 20% commission.

9. SEO

This is one of the most popular business online & if you have idea of SEO then you don't have to worry about making money online.

Companies spend hundreds to thousands of dollars every month on SEO so that their website can get on the top of Google for their business keywords.You need to take the training from a popular institute like SEOTrainingCourse.co.in where you can learn practical SEO tips & implement the same to rank different types of sites.

10. Become an online seller

Online selling is not like traditional selling. Here you just need to become a seller on some of the top shopping portals like eBay, Amazon, Flipkart, SnapDeal etc. & list the products you want to sell.

You can roam around your city & check for the best products you can sell on these sites. You need to try the best products that you can sell at lower than market price. you can also get bulk items from Alibaba

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
How to make money ? Online or Offline making money is indeed a hard job for some and for some its easy, well not in every case so far. These are the best options to make money online. 1. Vlogging / Blogging : This is a one of the ...