Gordon Brown has made much during his non-campaign for the leadership of the UK Labour party of his desire to be a listening and learning prime minister, and one who is more open than Labour has been to date in government.

Mr Brown could show he is serious in two areas: first, he should ensure that members of parliament do not exempt themselves from the Freedom of Information Act – something that he has already signalled that he intends to do. Second, he should quietly ditch the other proposed restrictions on the use of the act that the government itself has been canvassing. For whatever Mr Brown’s intentions may be, he should know from another case that the culture of secrecy is alive and well in Whitehall.