Some things we've found out thanks to the Freedom of Information Act 2000:
»The Thatcher Government concocted a plan to search for the Loch Ness monster using a team of dolphins
»Foreign diplomats – who have diplomatic immunity – were accused of rapes, sexual assaults, child abuse and murders while working in Britain
»The Government agreed a £1.5m bailout of one of the most troubled schools in its flagship city academies programme ten days before the 2005 general election
Background
»Ted Heath was once offered concert work by Idi Amin of Uganda. The eccentric dictator made his offer in a 1977 telegram
»Weapons used by paratroopers on Bloody Sunday have ended up in the hands of the army in Sierra Leone, paramilitary police in Beirut and even in an Arkansas gun shop
»Seventy-four police officers serving with the Metropolitan Police have criminal records
»A clandestine British torture programme existed in postwar Germany, “reminiscent of the concentration camps”
»Britain has extradited four times as many people to the US as have been sent in return since the introduction of fast-track extradition
»The Metropolitan Police spent £900,000 policing illegal street meetings by the cleric Abu Hamza and his followers
»Six British military policemen died at the hands of an Iraqi mob in Majar al-Kabir because nearby reinforcements decided it was too dangerous to rescue them
»Robert Maxwell was being investigated for war crimes and was to be interviewed by police just before he drowned
»Rich landowners top the league of EU farm subsidy payouts
»Illegal immigrants are getting into Britain by enrolling on university courses, obtaining visas and then failing to turn up to study
»A cache of more than 300 weapons, including air pistols, swords and an improvised flame-thrower, were seized from schoolchildren in one year
»In one year, hundreds of 10 year old children were charged with crimes including serious sexual offences, robbery, actual bodily harm and assaulting a police officer
»Two hundred serving police officers have criminal records for offences that include assault, breach of the peace, theft and vandalism.
»The Elgin Marbles were damaged by two schoolboys fighting in the British Museum in 1961. One of the boys fell and knocked off part of a centaur's leg
»Some NHS dentists earn up to £250,000 a year in fees, as demand for those who have remained in the public sector increases