Haven't they been fun! Haven't they been the best things we have had to read for such a long time!

And most importantly, haven't they been so very revealing!

I am talking about the leaked documents from Downing Street.

There was the plaintive memo from the Prime Minister himself, worrying about his and the government's loss of popularity.

Then the one from his adviser Philip Gould, warned starkly the New Labour brand has been contaminated.

And the latest one yesterday revealed the Prime Minister believes the political case for Euro entry is already confirmed.

It was a delight to have the leaks because this is the party that once talked of taking us into an era of open government, of transparency and accountability.

But just as Margaret Thatcher opened up her Pandora's box and let free a generation of spivs, wide boys and hustlers whose philosophy was "greed is good", Tony Blair and his inner circle have created an administration of frightening political correctness which spins to achieve obfuscation and regards any aspect of openness as alien.

This obsession with secrecy, this desire to blur the edges and ensure no one takes the blame for anything is contagious.

It is spreading throughout public life and the inevitable reaction, I sincerely hope, is that there will be many more leaks. If this is the only way to find out what is really going on, how our masters are really thinking, then so be it.

It is the arrogance of some of those concerned that is so troubling.

The Church of England's decision to hold secret tribunals, hearing accusations of sexual misconduct by members of its clergy, is a disgrace.

This is a body worth more than £4 billion with some of the most practised hands at proffering the begging bowl in the country.

Its priests are often privy to the most intimate parts of our lives. We are entitled to know exactly what happens when they go bad. We need a leak from every secret tribunal it sets up.

The BBC exists only because we pay for it to exist, yet its boards of governors and management behave like secret societies. They treat responsible public interest in their machinations as a threat and criticism of the production of so much third-rate rubbish as ignorance.

Forget their annual protestations about public accountability. Leaks, please. Lots of them.

And what about the General Medical Council? This secretive, self-serving cabal should be scrapped immediately but in the meantime, a few well placed leaks should hasten it on its way.

The whole medical profession is adept at covering its tracks. Health secretary Alan Milburn has just had his knuckles rapped in the High Court for illegally trying to have a closed inquiry into the killings by Dr Harold Shipman.

In a truly open democracy, leaks would not be necessary. It is a measure of how far we have waded into the murk that they are.