That's convenient, 20 years not 15

The news that the Government have decided not to reduce the period for publishing secret government papers from the current 30 years to 15 years as proposed by the government review but instead have opted for 20 years, does not surprise me. It is now 13 years since Labour's 1997 election victory and Labour would rather release information relating to the last years of the last Conservative government than anything surrounding their early years in power.

The BBC reports that "the new 20-year rule will be phased in over 10 years by doubling the amount of old records released each year". So I assume that in 2011 we will have released 1981 & 1982, in 2012 - 1983 & 1984 etc. which means that 1997 papers will not be released until 2017. How convenient...