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Originally Posted by pablissimo
It's not like there's a great deal of opacity about UK politics, most of it's there and available if you really want it. It's just mostly very dull, and complicated, and would require more time than the average person could reasonably devote to it to stay on top of things in their entirety.
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The fundamentals are certainly all there, and if you're just looking for an overview then you can certainly get an ABC of Consitutional Government without too much trouble (if you don't mind a bit of study). But when it comes to specifics, certain things are still far from clear.
To take a rather dull recent example; look at the Home Information Packs recently delayed by Ms Kelly. I have been involved in trying to prepare my organisation for the imapct of these for a little over a year now (it affects housing associations in 2008ish) and information is hard to come by. Sure, the legal framework in terms of the EU directive has been there for years, but the specifcs (i.e. whether it'll be a pain in the arse and hugely costly or not) has been permanently hazy. I attended a meeting a few months ago with various interested parties including people who were directly involved with ODPM/DCLG consultation meetings and no-one was sure of anything. People who had met with senior civil servants who are overseeing the matter had said that basic issues they had raised were met with "Good point, we hadn't thought of that", and similar. No-one (including government officials) could even estimate when more might be known. A few months down the line and it's still all bit of a shambles - even after the relevant statutory instrument has been published we're still not sure of how it will work (and thus how much impact it's likely to have).
So yeah, if you want to know what the Law Lords do, or how a bill becomes a law then there's plenty of stuff out there. But if you're interested in why a specific decision was made (or when it will be made) then you might find things harder going (unless it was a legal ruling or decision made as result of parliamentary vote or similar). To use a much more serious example - why did we go to Iraq for example? Are we likely to ever properly understand the full chain of events/communication between the Americans, the military, the intelligence services and our government?