The Scottish Government is to run a consultation on extending its version of the Freedom of Information Act.
[...]
This could include: contractors who build and maintain schools, hospitals and roads; private prison operators; leisure, sport and cultural trusts set up by local authorities; Glasgow Housing Association; and the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland.

• Kable

Please support Mohammed Atif Siddique in court Tue 30/Wed 1 July, Edinburgh.

Mohammed Atif Siddique's appeal against his conviction for "terrorism" will be heard in Edinburgh High Court on Tuesday 30th June. The Siddique family deserve to see a court packed with friends and supporters. Please come along and show your support.

Housing charity Shelter criticise the landlord registration scheme as toothless, saying there are "still cases where tenants had been illegally evicted, threatened, or even assaulted."

• BBC Scotland

Charlie Gordon's up to funny business with money again. Hold the front page! This time the motorway-loving ex-head of Glasgow City Council who has strange pull with at least one expat property dealer has taken the very reasonable and not at all corrupt step of giving £13,000 of public money to his son's company for "website expenses".

• The Herald

"Police attempts to outlaw the monthly Critical Mass cycle ride through the streets of London unless its route was notified in advance were blocked by the law lords today."

• The Guardian
• Full text of judgement

As we enter a deep recession, here's a nice wee reminder of who wants to look after our interests. Senior Tories are apparently in revolt over a plan to stop them from having second jobs, plenty of which appear to pay substantially more than what folks' first jobs pay.

For example, domeheaded failed leader William Hague gets nearly £100,000 for after-dinner speaking (with that voice?). And someone gets £80,000 advising people on pensions - who has that much in their whole retirement fund?

Of course, the Tories who don't have 2nd jobs? "'George has a trust fund – he doesn't need a second job,'"

• The Independent

 "Obama will be able to work with his European allies to do a better job of selling the war to skeptical publics."

Moves to tighten up powers to prevent "extremists" to enter the UK: "expected to strengthen the rules on excluding from Britain those who are 'suspected of stirring up tensions'. The move will cover anti-abortionists, animal rights extremists, neo-Nazis as well as extremist clerics."

The change is aimed at reversing the burden of proof so that people now have to prove that they "refute accusations made against them by publicly denouncing or retracting their reported views. At present the Home Office has to provide evidence that the individual holds the views ascribed to them. Individuals may have to make a statement of their attachment to democratic values to prove their change of heart is genuine."

"Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist party?"

• Guardian

Two pieces of news today make Business Secretary John Hutton look pretty stinky on climate change. "UK civil servants from the Department of Business, enterprise and regulatory reform have a different strategy and are pushing for cuts" and "John Hutton, the Business Secretary, wants to approve the project [Kingsnorth] even if it is not chosen for an experiment in which its carbon emissions would be "captured" and stored under the sea."

However it's worth bearing in mind that with the Labour government all reading Machiavelli at the moment, the 2 stories coming out on the same day are unlikely to be a coincidence. Also note that no side of the Kingsnorth "split" is suggesting it shouldn't be built at all. 

• UK lobbying for aviation exemption
• Govt split on Kingsnorth expansion

The opposition governors of Santa Cruz, Rubén Costas, and of Tarija, Mario Cossío, have signed an agreement to begin a dialogue with the Bolivian Government in order to resolve the violent conflict that has engulfed the country, where in the last few days 30 people have died.