whether or not it’s a good idea is another thing, but given the choice between knowing who my MP meets with and not knowing who he meets with, I will take the “knowing.”

following from there, the question is: what is a reasonable set of guidelines, and can we build a good calendar system for all MPs that will publish easily to the web, so that their secretaries can press “send” and have the info public?

Publish the content of his or her daily schedule, including meetings with lobbyists and special interest groups.

It’s one thing to hold politicians accountable, it’s another to expect them to write daily reports about “what I did at work today”. Politicians – yes, even elected officials – are human beings too, and we shouldn’t need to babysit them if we did our homework on them before heading to the polls. Who thinks it’s a good idea to create even more bureaucracy?

I would prefer to see the hour-or-so of time spent writing a daily schedule used elsewhere, like, I don’t know, actually working on legislation or something.

Finally, there will always be the closed-door meetings and back-room sessions with interests groups and lobbyists. I’m less interested in the existence of these meetings than in their outcome; if legislation I favor is pushed through, then I really don’t care if it came as a result of a private meeting or a public consultation.

Not everything needs to be open.