Information Tribunal Case No. EA/2011/0082 & 0083 (ICO FS50347960 and FS50361229)

Ian Luder went from this somewhat terse e mail (in the above link) in February 2006 to the cult getting tax relief and him speaking in glowing terms about the scientology cult at their grand opening of Queen Victoria Street Scientology building in the City of London by October 2008.

He and City of London police seem to have been taken in by the Say No to Drugs scientology front group.

A little late I know, but my copy of Private Eye takes a while to arrive: congratulations to WT for his latest victory -- and hat's off to him for his persistence in negotiating the FOIA labyrinth.
Jonny Jacobsen

Thanks Jonny, coming from you that means a lot!

Keep up the good work at your end - your blog's invaluable.

It'll be interesting to see what (if anything) the disputed information in the information tribunal case actually consists of.

L&K,

- WT.

For those who wanted to see what Private Eye wrote (No. 1315, 1 June - 14 June 2012, p29):

Private Eye, No. 1315, 1 June - 14 June 2012, p29

Cult cornered

Judges have overturned a decision by the information commissioner that a man trying to find out details of the City of London's relationship with Scientology organisations was being vexatious and obsessive.

Campaigner William Thackeray (see Eye 1258) was refused information by the City authority regarding meetings between Alderman Ian Luder and Scientology organisations and about properties in the Square Mile that were granted charitable grounds rates relief, on the grounds that his requests were vexatious. the information commissioner supported this view.

Mr Thackeray complainted to the first tier tribunal that this was "no more than thorough research". He said that despite the Charity Commission's refusal to grant charitable status to the cult, the City had awarded Scientologists 80 percent tax relief on charitable grounds.

"The dogged pursuit of an investigation should not lighly be characterised as an obsessive campaign of harassment", said the unanimous judgement.

Another great piece of work WT

Updated:

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/alderman_ian_luder_scientology#incoming-300151

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/reque...attach/3/Letter to Thackeray EA 2011 0082.pdf

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/alderman_ian_luder_scientology#outgoing-213978

Lovely:

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/alderman_ian_luder_scientology#outgoing-213978

From: William Thackeray

1 August 2012

Dear City of London Corporation,

Thank you for your eventual reply, dated 31 July 2012, to my
freedom of information query of 18 February 2010.

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of
Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of City of London
Corporation's handling of my FOI request 'Alderman Ian Luder,
Scientology'.

The reasons for my internal review request are:

1) The City of London now relies upon new exemptions which it has
not raised at any previous time during this FOIA query's progress
through the original FOIA timeline, your original internal review
process, the ICO investigation and decision notice, or the Tribunal
case. It is too late for the public authority to raise additional
exemptions at this stage; such exemptions should have been raised
at the appropriate time, which was March 2010. The information
should therefore be released in full.

2) Concerning the substance of the query: Mr Luder's email of 15
December 2009, in which he asserts that he has not met with
Scientology representatives except for a single occasion in
September, appears to be in error.
In this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDnRqeODu8E
Mr Luder can be seen in October 2006 at Scientology's new London
HQ, making the opening speech for the newly refurbished property at
Queen Victoria Street (for which the City of London gives
Scientology substantial tax relief).
In this video, Mr Luder refers to "the representatives of the
Church, with whom I've had the pleasure of working over the past
several months".
It therefore seems likely that further records exist; I would ask
that a more thorough search be conducted.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is
available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/al...

Yours faithfully,

William Thackeray

Go William Go William

Very nice!

Thị trấn Mỏ Cày dog i ê ứ h ự /