Contrary to what some people think, I’m not a journalist. Yes, I might well have the permanently suspicious mindset of your traditional journalist – and some of what I do is no doubt journalism – but I have no formal training or qualifications in the field.

However, I do know a few people in the trade. I did consider becoming one when I was younger – but to borrow a line from Vice City’s Tommy Vercetti, “I lived a different life”. And I’ve picked up a few tips from them over the years – but there’s one which gets mentioned much more frequently than the others.

It consists of three words. Freedom of Information. All four corners of the UK have an act in place from the early 2000s which provides the public with access to information held in public records. The ICO’s website has a fuller description of what it does.

Journalists love them and politicians hate them. And it appears Sacha Lord loves them too. He’s submitted one to the government requesting information on all the parties and social gatherings during November and December 2020. Who was there? Who paid for everything?

Enough.

The Gov't responded to my Freedom of Information request today. They confirmed a response by 14th Jan.

We've asked for every name at every party or social gathering in November and December.

Also, who paid for the drinks and food.

I'll publish the response on here. https://t.co/L8O47ov4Av

— Sacha Lord (@Sacha_Lord) December 14, 2021

It’s highly notable that to the best of my knowledge, no British politics journalist has submitted a similar freedom of information request. It doesn’t do much to dampen down speculation that some of those journalists were at some of these seemingly illicit parties.

I’ll be intrigued to see what comes back…