POLITICS is funny. You start off with a very clear view on a subject and sometimes events force you to completely change your mind.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been undergoing a road to Damascus experience on the issue of whether Guernsey needs a freedom of information law.

I started off dead against the idea, not because I was opposed to an open style of politics, but because I’d seen the expensive bureaucracy needed to support the FOI Act in the UK. Armies of public servants employed at the taxpayers’ expense to respond to a barrage of FOI requests, many of which are frankly frivolous or simply trawling exercises by under-employed hacks.

Did we really need something similar here? Sadly, I’m coming to the view that we do – although hopefully a more cost-effective version.

There’ll always be occasions when governments have to keep certain things confidential to protect vulnerable third parties, or for valid legal reasons. But the presumption should always be that the public has a right to know, unless releasing that information is clearly not in their interest.

Such public interest considerations should not include covering politicians’ backs.

In recent weeks there have been three examples of apparent news blackouts for reasons which are not at all clear to the casual observer. Maybe in one of these cases there was a good reason for secrecy, which itself can’t be revealed. But in all three? That’s stretching credulity.

The first is over the size of the payout resulting from the States’ failed legal battle over territorial fishing rights.

I was an observer of the early stages of this drama as a member of the former Policy Council.

I well remember the former C&E minister reporting to the council that, with a little flexibility, he thought a compromise deal could be struck with fishermen from Jersey and the UK. He was shouted down by deputies Trott and Jones, who urged him to stand firm and allow no compromise, insisting that Guernsey would be bound to win in court. I wonder why the Policy Council is now so shy in revealing what that error of judgement has cost the local taxpayer?

The second event to shake my opposition to a FOI law was the decision by Environment to impose a blanket ban on responding to enquiries from the Guernsey Press. At the risk of upsetting my editor and getting the heave-ho from my weekly column, let me say that I had no issue with the minister hitting back vigorously at criticism he’d received in this newspaper’s editorial column. Planning is a horrible responsibility – you can’t win, every decision upsets someone – and yet it’s a vital function.

I fully support Deputy Sirett in fighting his corner and defending his staff. If he felt that the media attacks had descended to unfair lampoons then I can even understand him responding in kind – although whether that was wise is another matter.

But to go further and refuse to comment to the Press was clearly a step too far. It deprives the people of Guernsey of information they have a right to know. True, they might learn some of it through the local radio and TV stations, but the daily paper is a prime news conduit and its readership shouldn’t suffer because of a tiff between the department and the paper’s editorial staff.

Then, of course, we had last week’s antics of the Education Department in refusing a perfectly reasonable request for data over GCSE results at local schools.

That was just the latest in a long history of secrecy at that department. Its corporate culture seems to be imbued with the view that controlling behaviour and rationing information will ensure that power remains where it rightly belongs – at the top of the educational hierarchy.

And by that I don’t mean the Education minister or the members of the political board.

What the reason is for the latest lack of openness, who can say? Some believe it’s because Guernsey’s overall performance is less than impressive.

Perhaps, but I think a more likely explanation is that the department’s strict policy of school admission by catchment area would come under huge challenge if it was known there were significant variations between the achievements of Guernsey’s three high schools.

Whatever the reason, it’s clear that the practice of stonewall politics is rapidly growing in Guernsey.

If the only cure is a local FOI law I find that rather sad, but so be it.