I have to reveal today that there are around 250 privileged lobbyists nestling at Westminster who do not get enough scrutiny.
These talented individuals have managed to organise themselves passes to the Palace of Westminster.
They use their passes to loiter and linger around the corridors to get the opportunity of direct private exchanges with Ministers, to propose their plans and causes without officials present.
They even get access to some meetings where Ministers brief them and take their questions in closed sessions.
They often work with private sector companies, trade unions and charities to help them make their case and make it look better based and respectable.
They themselves receive public money, and seek to raise other money to back their campaigns.
Their latest campaign is particularly clever. It is a campaign to stop other lobbyists from access, presumably to enhance their own special access and to cut down lobby competition.
I refer of course to the 250 Opposition MPs who are on the taxpayer payroll and can lobby for much of their active day. If Ministers stopped listening to lobbying I suspect they would have some sharp words to say. Parliament is a system partly for organised lobbying for causes MPs and their constituents back. There is no reason why others cannot see or write to Ministers. There is nothing wrong with charities, Trade Unions and businesses lobbying for policies that help them. That will be obvious and declared when they make their case.
Of course Ministers need to treat all representations properly, and avoid any conflict or avoid acting where they are themselves party to a lobbyists cause or profit.
April 23, 2021
Oh SPYING you mean?
Gaining access to Number 10 meetings?
But they must surely be recognised…who lets them in?
April 23, 2021
Doesnât the govt. always leak info. Just to test the water?
It must be difficult for officials ( spies) to know what is to be released and what must remain under wraps.
It is all a cesspit.
And doing no one any good.
No more would abysmal and equally treacherous Labour.
April 23, 2021
No, politicians are not “all the same”, any more than any other class of person would be.
April 24, 2021
Martin, Where does Everhopeful say that politicians are “all the same”?
April 23, 2021
âThere is no reason why others cannot see or write to Ministers. â
Maybe, but more to the point is how much clout âothersâ might have. This is often a case of money and/or the ability to prove useful to those lobbied politicians in future.
April 23, 2021
I wrote to the Chancellor when they stole universal child benefit from “the rich”.
My letter showed how a household with two ÂŁ30K earners in it was already ÂŁ6K per year better off than a household with a single ÂŁ60K earner in it due to tax free allowances and lower earnings limits. The Chancellor wished to take a further ÂŁ2,400 from me while leaving that with the other household. Did he think this was good policy and was I richer than them.
His aides did not even acknowledge the letter.
That is the access that normal people get.
April 23, 2021
Well, it’s when a case is made not on its merits, but with the strong implication that if it were acted upon then substantial donations to the party of government would likely follow in due course that the whole thing gets very dirty isn’t it?
And that can happen anywhere, it absolutely need not be in Westminster. It might be, oh, on a tennis court, or in a restaurant.
Or maybe the implication might be that the donations would cease if the plea were ignored? A donor or one of their nexus wouldn’t have to say much to imply that, would they?
April 24, 2021
Indeed lobbying can happen anywhere, Martin. It especially happens in the EU. But at least we can vote out the venal politicians in the UK.
April 23, 2021
Good morning.
The solution(s) is / are simple. Outlaw it ! Either that or make it such that, all those who lobby Ministers, must make public their affairs and the minutes of any such meetings. Transparency.
Lobbying in itself is not bad. Many of us, myself included, often say things in the hope of influencing our kind host and / or others. Power, or the access to power, attracts people with causes to promote. It is that certain causes are more worthy than others and that norma filters are bypassed leading to some of the crap we have had to endure over the decades.
April 23, 2021
@Mark B – 100% correct. Lobbying over and above the constituent to MP is an attempt to corrupt Democracy. At the very least every such conversation should have a verbatim record and the names, fees and expenses of any lobbying above this on public record with ample time for others to object and offer alternatives to these conversation.
April 23, 2021
Sounds like how to create a log jam and ensure that nothing happens. In none emergency situations a simple on paper lobby, wherever it arises, I would find acceptable. Something like a high speed planning application. If government felt inclined to agree with it, assuming no commercial conflict by disclosure, it could then go to those who might be affected for comment prior to a final decision.
Most of the current furore arises from action in a national emergency. Ministers should be allowed to deal with it as they feel appropriate. There is no time for lengthy debate, and if the minister gets it badly wrong it is his head on the block. If he gets it right the ship remains afloat, if not it sinks. Having been awoken from deep sleep at sea and confronted with the mistakes of others I know the feeling.
April 23, 2021
A vote every five years for your MP is the only real input that the voter gets to protect the public and taxpayers from abuse and over taxation the state. If you then allow politicians to be for hire (even if they do have to declare them) it rather kills any real democracy.
Rather like voting every five years who will will drive the bus, but then allowing the richer passengers to bribe the driver every day for five years until the next election.
April 24, 2021
Mark B, Where bureaucrats (in the EU) or politicians (in the UK) write new laws, there will always be lobbying. And it would be almost impossible to outlaw it, despite your suggestion (lobby?), because what constitutes a lobby (JR’s humorous point)?
Unfortunately, we have to rely on the honesty, integrity, and fairness of our politicians. Once we could at least point to a moral code external to any man to shame the venal, but now that God is dead anyone’s moral code is valid. Which is why we are where we are.
April 23, 2021
Sir John
Isn’t this all geting a bit out of hand and making things worse for the politicians trying to operate with some credence of respectability?
A bit like manufacturers representatives that can waste a lot of staffs time looking for the next project to get a sniff of. There should be one rule and one rule only. By appointment only. This has the advantage of everything is out in the open and interested politicians can be invited to attend any presentation especially involving companies and projects with local, national and international implications..
Lobbyists do themselves and the politicians no favours when there is a perception no matter how small of possible collusion taking place.
April 23, 2021
@turboterrier – agreed 100%. Our very own HoC destroying its very place in Society along with the notion of a Democracy.
April 23, 2021
Happy St George’s Day, Sir John.
April 23, 2021
There is one factor in life that has not been mentioned so far and which will never be stopped and shouldn’t be stopped.
It is not not what you know but who you know
April 23, 2021
George.
Indeed that is so, and certainly “who you know and not what you know”, has never been shown up more than with the Mr Cameron farce.
The fact that he has had some form of privilege most of his life (when compared to the majority of the population) is not a problem in itself, but certainly is when you are trying to game the system, either for self advantage, or advantage for others you know.
The real worry is that those who are in privileged positions or with personal contacts, seem not to even be aware of the fact, that they are !
April 23, 2021
Totally agree and in response the whining about privilege brigade we all do it in our private lives. Do I chose someone to help on house projects from a random directory. Of course not. I go into my network and ask for recommendations.
April 23, 2021
Nig 1
The big difference is that taxpayers money is not involved in your scenario, plus you do not make any legislation to suit yourself at the expense or for the exclusion of others.
A very large difference.
April 23, 2021
Yet as with the short-lived football Super League, it is a bad look when persons like D. Cameron are seen taking advantage of what appears to be a privileged position (in his case resting upon previous public service) to carve out preferential treatment for sectional interests, the justice and appropriateness of which is open to challenge. Clearly though, as you allude, we must rely upon Ministers (and civil servants I would think) to resist and ignore as appropriate.
Of further acute concern, has Dame Lucy Doolittle been moonlighting working for Greensill? I think we should be told!
April 23, 2021
We know now that David Cameron, an unelected private citizen, has been given privileged and secret access to senior Minsters and civil servants. We know that friends of Ministers and donors to the Conservative party have been given similar privileged access. For you to laugh this off, as if the elected members of Her Majesty’s Opposition are in any way in the same position, is shameful
April 23, 2021
No, the elected members of HMO are in some cases the paid representatives of elements of the Trade Union Congress. No doubts about their lobbying activities are there.
April 23, 2021
GF, I think Mr Cameron foolishly abused his position as a former PM, but if you think people in whatever senior/significant/well-connected roles have never before had or used their private and privileged access to power, you are living in a naive dreamworld.
April 23, 2021
@Grey Friar
You raise a couple of interesting points.
“Privileged” access. I email my MP. He responds to me. That is possibly low-level privileged access. My MP thinks there is merit in what I have to say. He then puts me in touch with a very helpful Parliamentary Researcher. I make contact with the Chancellor of the Exchequer and a couple of Government Departments. Still low-level privileged access. A former Minister (Prime or otherwise) makes direct contact with a current Minister is probably high-level privileged access, maybe because he has been able to bypass the local MP and, to an extent, the Government Departments. Perhaps the “privilege” is the fact that the establishment is more likely to give time to a former Prime Minister than to me. “Privilege” is perhaps more in the eyes of the beholder although, according to the Times, “David Cameron was not given preferential access to senior Treasury ministers and officials, Rishi Sunak insisted yesterday, as he defended his role in the Greensill scandal for the first time.”
Maybe when a former Prime Minister and a current Minister make contact, they should only be permitted to discuss the weather and the football results ?
In the middle there is probably a range of medium-level privileged access which might include the “friends of Ministers and donors to the Conservative party” to which you refer as well as opposition MPs and vested interests (private sector companies, trade unions and charities) mentioned by our host.
“Secret” access. Mr Cameron’s access is no longer secret. Maybe your issue is the absence of a procedure under which Mr Cameron’s lobbying would have to be made known, at least to Parliament, whether he was successfull or not.
April 23, 2021
What are you talking about? All sorts of unelected private citizens have access the whole time to ministers and civil servants. Ms Greta Thunberg for example, had a meeting with Michael Gove in which I imagine she lobbied for all sorts of bizarre policies to shut down economies on the grounds the end of the world is nigh. Presumably you think that meeting is all fine and dandy?
April 23, 2021
To paraphrase ‘The unacceptable face of politicians, when faced with capitalism’.
April 23, 2021
David Cameron knew perfectly well that what he was doing was simply wrong.
April 23, 2021
Worrying stuff, Sir John – and thanks for the ‘heads up’. The passes should, of course, be withdrawn. But I have lost confidence in our politicians, as a class, to know right from wrong.
April 23, 2021
@Sea_Warrior – self interest and self preservation places our political class beyond redemption
April 23, 2021
Oh dear. Did you actually read the post? Clearly not, unless you propose to do away with Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition.
April 24, 2021
Will, So you think there is no hypocrisy involved in some Opposition MPs lobbying for trades union privileges whilst being sponsored by, and in the pockets of, those same trades unions, as they denounce the current lobbying of Tory politicians?
April 23, 2021
Lobbying is not illegal. Nor should it be.
However, it needs to be cleaned up with the soap of transparency and the disinfectant of publicity.
April 23, 2021
There are regulators who are tasked with overseeing lobbying.
Unfortunately rather like âlight touch financial regulationâ they are often ineffectual. The benefit is mostly for lobbied politicians who can then claim that their actions are officially monitored.
Cameron actually appointed Harry Rich who was then supposed to be monitoring his dealings with Greensill.
April 23, 2021
Oldwulf
Agree with you to a degree, and certainly opposition Mp’s could hardly be called lobbyists with a pass, as we should seek to a degree cross party consensus on some matters like NHS, Benefit System etc to avoid stop go with the introduction and cancellation of new policies every few years.
Thus you should, and never will stop politicians from different sides talking to each other, the problem appears to be deliberate leakage and or personal gain which is the problem.
Likewise perhaps there should be an agreed process (which should be fit for purpose) that all lobbyists and requests to Mp’s should have to go through before any action can be taken, the simple one for any outside source is to have a listening to only your own constituents policy, one I believe a number of Mp’s already work to.
April 23, 2021
Lobbying is one thing, but paying MPs (or the Lords) who are supposed to represent the public interests to be âconsultantsâ is very often pure corruption, crony capitalist or very close indeed to it. It explains so much about so many of the appallingly âanti the public interestsâ new laws and regulations we get. Indeed MPs are really the only people in the system their to protect the tax payers and public from being cheated and exploited by the state and vested interest.
They are alas doing an appalling jobs in this respect.
April 23, 2021
But itâs about the way lobbying happens.
If a group of charities meet ministers to explain why breaking a manifesto commitment in aid will lead to the deaths of thousands of children then that is fine – providing the meeting is conducted properly and minuted.
If a billionaire Brexit businessman texts his mate the PM and asks for help with his taxes that is not fine. Where is the process?
If I text the PM will he do my bidding too?
I feel sorry for honest Tory backbenchers because they are trying to defend a corrupt government. Johnson has turned us into a Banana Republic – without bananas.
Imagine the Brexitist outrage if Corbyn had become PM and presided over such epic sleaze.
April 23, 2021
Deaths of thousands of children and of course your obsession with Brexit as a loser. Even for you a real stretch to weave them into todayâs subject.
April 23, 2021
The businessman you accuse was lobbying for the protection of the tax situation of those he might have to bring in from overseas plants to solve the lack of ventilator problem in the NHS. The PM had apparently lobbied him for help in solving that problem. The businessman’s views on Brexit were totally irrelevant, except of course in your own festering obsessed mind.
April 23, 2021
Dyson didnât solve the problem. His company produced nothing of use to the NHS. But he did get a tax favour by texting the PM.
Plenty of better companies helped out anyway. They didnât need to text Boris because they have a sound moral compass.
April 23, 2021
@Andy; “a billionaire Brexit businessman”
Or indeed an NGO worker who buttonholes a Minister in the bar at a COP style gathering, or obtains the Ministers private contact details, sending text messages, emails etc?
The issue is not the meeting, text messages, phone calls or what ever, all can be conducted correctly, properly reported and minuted. If you disagree that billionaire Brexit businessman should be allowed to Lobby then surely you are also suggesting that charities & NGOs shouldn’t be allowed either, Geese and Ganders, as they say!
“I magine the [..//..] outrage if Corbyn had become PM and presided over such epic sleaze.”
Indeed, just a pity that some past Labour Leaders were not so ethical and open as Mr Corbyn is and would have been…
April 23, 2021
I have no problem with Dyson lobbying – so long as he does it in the appropriate way. If he has an issue he should take the matter with his MP who should raise
it with a minister in the correct way. (Though Iâm not quite sure who the MP for Singapore is).
A parent whose dying child canât get drugs funded on the NHS canât just text the PM to get the law changed. Nor should the Singapore based billionaire be able to either.
April 24, 2021
@Andy; Anyone can contact the Prime Minster, via 10 Downing Street!
April 24, 2021
You weren’t quite so keen on being open about the sleaze, corruption and lobbying in the EU’s headquarters, Andy, were you?
April 23, 2021
On Dyson, the government put saving lives as their highest priority – lives over money Andy, isn’t that what you wanted ? Maybe not, as Brexit has saved 10,400 lives so far according to PHE but you still don’t like it.
What is slightly annoying is the government listening to lobbying on global warming/climate change/claimate disruption/the climate emergency from an uneducated truant with no scientific or other qualifications whatsoever other than a cult following of middle-aged wealthy virtue signalling bleeding heart liberals. But I suppose you regard that as the *right* sort of lobbying.
April 23, 2021
SNP echo chamber Angy?
April 23, 2021
Or to put it another way…
Billionaire businessman offers to help the UK by developing and manufacturing medical equipment at a loss to get the country out of a potential hole and requests that this charity shouldn’t affect his hard working employees personal finances.
April 23, 2021
Many charities are even worse than crony capitalist businesses at this lobbying.
April 23, 2021
“I feel sorry for honest Tory backbenchers………….”
It’s not just you, Andy. My pet crocodile was telling me the exact same thing this morning. In tears, he was.
April 23, 2021
There is no problem with Lobbying or the Lobbyist, any issues are with those who are Lobbied, if they act ethically, within the rules, within law, or not.
Many comments to this site could, by the less than charitable, be described as a form of Lobbying, so perhaps all those who dislike Lobbying (especially if our host is their MP) should withdraw from commenting forthwith!
April 23, 2021
Good morning,
I suppose one might feel a bit sorry for Mr. Cameron, he’s made a fool of himself and whatever influence he might have had is now gone, but I don’t and we know why.
There are two possibilities; first, he was too innocent to know that the company he was pushing was in desperate straits, but like a good soldier he did his best for a hopeless cause. This is incompetence.
Second, he DID know that his project was a fantasy of arrogant, greedy uselessness, but he wanted it funded by public money in any case. You can decide for yourself what that is.
IT boils down to integrity, seems that is no longer part of the curriculum at Eton and Oxford.
April 24, 2021
Is that all it is ‘he’s made a fool of himself’ ?
I wouldn’t mind doing the same if I succeeded and got ÂŁmillions for it !
April 23, 2021
So you don’t see any difference between an elected opposition MP and private sector lobbyists that have Ministers on speed dial? Do opposition MPs have that same level of access to Ministers and Senior Civil Service employees?
April 23, 2021
Lobby amongst yourselves by all means, you were at least elected by a majority among those you represent.
Please go forth in the real world and get yourselves informed every time you need specialist knowledge when deciding aye or nay.
Those with power and influence whose sole purpose is to enhance that power should be treated with surgical gloves on. This is where I think submissions on an A4 sheet should be their limit. No automatic open doors because you went to the same school, university, or belong to the same club or lodge.
In a national emergency it is different. Information has to be gained and decisions made in a hurry. Problems have to be solved. Take the recent dirth of PPE. The accepted system had failed, total waste of time returning to it for solutions. I can understand the desire to solve the problem quickly and accept that mistakes get made in the process. Those involved had to cross a river after the bridge had been blown. Dragging that situation into the system of lobbying is a distraction. However it does not mean that the whole system of lobbying and undue influence does not need scrutiny.
That is my lobby for today, thank you for facilitating it. It does not have the impact of lunch at the Gavroche and a bottle of Margaux, but you remain sufficiently sober to remember what I said.
April 24, 2021
So you prefer a different restaurant.
April 23, 2021
And in other news the government has scrapped plans for White House type briefings when they realised this would expose them to constant probing about Boris Johnsonâs peccadilloes and regular broken promises. So back to private whispers to tame journos. Hardly open government So whatâs the odd ÂŁ2million of our money wasted to protect Boris?
Nothing compared to the ÂŁ160 million it has thrown away compensating investors because of the failure of the financial conduct authority. I wonder where the head of that is? Surely not promoted? Ah I forgot. This is the zero responsibility/accountability public sector.
April 23, 2021
Particularly absurd is the criticism of the contacts between the PM and Sir James Dyson. Sir James, the UKâs greatest industrial entrepreneur, was rallying to the call -a desperate one at the time – to redirect engineering operations to the production of ventilators, thought by scientists at the time to be essential to save hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of lives. Decisions had to be made in days if not hours. Of course he was entitled to ensure that employees he asked to work on this programme would not be stung by some tax disadvantage. The PM led from the front in making sure that the resources of this great company would be available for the expected national struggle to provide sufficient ventilators for the NHS.
Leftists – in reality continuity remainers enraged by Sir Jamesâs support for Brexit – describe all this mendaciously as a billionaire trying to change the tax laws for his own good. The public can see that Sir James was doing his best to serve the Country, and the PM was doing everything he could to obtain resources at a desperate time. We can see the sneering leftists for what they are.
April 23, 2021
Good morning Sir John,
To me as a Democracy we all share an equal opportunity to have our voice heard. That mechanism for all UK Citizens is through our local representative – our MP.
What is wrong with lobbying is there is a sector of Society are saying as we have money we have more rights, we will employ people to go into the halls of Westminster and will shout louder than those we want to pay for our asperations. That is the un-equal bit, what we call democracy is being bought by the privalaged. Just that small bit sets out to undermine real democracy.
April 23, 2021
+1 Quite. And as we often see, the interests of the lobbyists are detrimental to those of constituents and voters generally.
Thank you, Sir John for highlighting this issue.
April 23, 2021
There is nothing wrong with charities, Trade Unions and businesses lobbying for policies that help them. – and they have a dedicated local MP we all employ for that. What they don’t have the right to do is undermine Democracy by using their money, employing staff to apply pressure in the Halls of our Government over and above what the voter, the taxpayer, can do on an ordinary day. Which ever way you shake it out, that is leverage, distortion and by default that is 100% pure corruption.
April 23, 2021
+1 and this is clear in so many of the irrational decisions and laws made.
April 23, 2021
+1
April 23, 2021
+1
April 23, 2021
I think that satire should be banned as there are far too few people who seem to recognise or understand it.
Happy St. Georges Day to one and all, whoever you are.
April 23, 2021
Why do private sector companies, trade unions and charities believe that because they have money, they can buy influence? Then lets get real, these groupings are seeking to distort Democracy, distort the very purpose of Parliament, the HoC. They are ‘BUYING’ extras that the cant get in the ballot box. In the main the privalaged and the influence they demand and it will be at the expense of the taxpayer that is not allowed with out money to counter any proposals.
If paid for lobbying is permitted, why do we need MP’s?
April 23, 2021
@nota# – replying to myself
As a point of transparency, I do/have worked with and enjoyed being entertained by Industry Lobby Groups. Very nice plausible well paid individuals its a shame their very purpose is to corrupt Democracy, big time! all at the expense with no return for the taxpayer/voter, the Country even.
April 23, 2021
Too much access is given to big organisations.
And far too little listening to ordinary individuals takes place.
That’s the biggest problem.
April 23, 2021
…. and when Minsters receive lucrative non-productive ‘jobs’ with the lobbyists’ companies after they leave office? Is that OK as well?
April 23, 2021
The whole stinking mess needs to go. Politicians are living in an echo chamber and are totally out of touch with the British people. I read yesterday that it will cost households ÂŁ20k to convert their gas boilers and install electric charging points. Now we hear Boris has brought forward his Green targets and wants them put into law. The opposition is non-existent and no one questions the feasibility of these policies. Honourable politicians are very thin on the ground.
April 23, 2021
Nobody tells us what happens if we simply can’t afford this.
April 23, 2021
Christine – Wake up and smell the coffee. The World Economic Forum “the Great Reset” being pushed by Boris and the Establishment. The real conspiracy theorists believe that their government cares about them, the media would never mislead or lie to them and the pharmaceutical industry that makes billions from sickness wants to cure them.
April 24, 2021
I woke up and smelled the coffee long ago. I’m trying to wake others up to the future our politicians have planned for us. There’s still time to reshape our politics but it needs a concerted effort like Brexit. Are the British people up for it? I’m not sure. By the time they wake up, it might be too late.
April 23, 2021
Wouldn’t that also apply to the Tories when they were in opposition?
IMVHO lobbying of all kinds should be outlawed — The current system is open to abuse. No minister should be allowed to meet with anyone pushing a proposal, especially for government money.
Instead there should be regular ocassions when those with a cause can meet with ministers and officials, in a meeting room, with all discussions recorded.
Let’s get away from anything that could possibly stink of corruption.
April 23, 2021
The 250 opposition MPs have been elected by their constituencies to represent (lobby as it were) their interests on a platform presented as a manifesto (party and personal?) at the last election / by-election. Your piece does not make this distinction, intentionally I feel. Your piece also does not mention that their was an 80 majority of MPs from your own party who were elected to lobby and represent the wishes of their constituents. Many of this majority are not following any manifesto that was presented before the last election.
So who is the most insidious or specious of these elected lobbyists?
April 23, 2021
The Tory MPs will struggle to lobby Ministers about anything from their manifesto – – -nothing is going to get done.
April 23, 2021
No Happy St. Georgeâs Day greetings John? What is it with the media and politicians who are only too happy to wax lyrical about St. Patrickâs Day and the patron saints days of the devolved nations? I suppose it should come as no surprise, itâs what we in England have come to expect from our anti-English politicians and media. Shameful!
April 23, 2021
I second that but I must add that I suspect Sir John has been told to give up promoting England. ‘Boris’ has probably ordered him to defend the Union at all costs.
In any case Unionists ie. the Tories cannot and will not put England first.
Reply I have had no such request! I have been putting to the BBC this week the wish to be able to have some airtime to discuss the need for England to have voice and visibility.
April 23, 2021
Jools B – St. Georges Day and the flag will upset the lefty libtards. They will need a room to overcome their anxiety. Too wacist as well!!!
April 23, 2021
Lobbyists should be licenced and their names entered into a register with details of their requests to whomever recorded and published for all to see- not only to parliamentarians but also to banking and big business if it concerns political involvement- we need more transparency
April 23, 2021
There is a âRegister of Consultant Lobbyistsâ. Check on http://www.parliament.uk âLobbyists Regulations â 26 February 2015.
It might be because there are such a Register and Regulations that the âselected fewâ get the PMâs phone number, in order to by-pass the regulations in the Register. Which would make Sir Johnâs todayâs offering rather meaningless, would it not?
April 23, 2021
They use their passes to loiter and linger around the corridors to get the opportunity of direct private exchanges with Ministers.
The Palace of Westminster the venue for the gathering of those that have been called to office/serve the People to create the âLawsâ, âRulesâ and âRegulationsâ that define how we live. Then if someone/or some entity is using their privileged of having money to influence Parliaments decisions, rather than choose the formal approach to their constituent MP â isnât that the same as âJury Tamperingâ ?
April 23, 2021
…and Whips bullying MPs to stick with the rubbish view from the top.
April 23, 2021
I would like to present you with a lobby on a subject that only hits the headlines after a major event, crime. Our police forces only solve less than 9% of recorded crime. I have read a claim that recorded crime is going down, but would submitt that this is the inevitable result of not recording it.
The 90% of unsolved crime must be one hell of a business for those who know how to operate. Just think of it. None of all those taxes the majority of us suffer, no VAT, no regulation from anyone and live anywhere that PC prevents you from being looked at or if you are really good at it some tropical tax haven.
It is long overdue that our very expensive police forces suffered an annual performance audit of their activities. Consider the cost of insurance on top of the cost of policing. Whatever it is they do it does not involve solving crime.
April 23, 2021
April Fool’s Day has seemed to extend well out into April in Wokingham.
First we hear of the great “benefits” of being left without a hard shoulder when your car breaks down.
Now we hear crazy comparisons made between elected MPs lobbying for a cause (which could well have been part of their election appeal) and the highly UNelected but well placed D. Cameron. TOTALLY DIFFERENT.
For anyone, inside Whitehall or out, to set up schemes to arbitrage public spending and public procurement and making a quick buck on the fly is immoral, period.
Encouraging public sector contacts to do the same with the implicit offer of reward for them later would be corrupt.
April 23, 2021
I welcome the opportunity to lobby provided by this blog. Democracy at work. I know that I need to be persuasive and being real facts to bear if I am going to enlighten our host and other readers and succeed in getting him and them to revise an opinion. Money does not count. I also relish the opportunity to strengthen his hand in debate with supporting arguments. Of course, persuasion doesn’t always work. But it would be far more insufferable not to have the opportunity, which is where the closure of debate in our institutions leads: dictatorship.
April 23, 2021
Mark, Youâre an optimist, arenât you?
April 23, 2021
A reasonable attempt to divert the horrors of Tory Westminster and Downing STife…..
Failed.
April 23, 2021
should have read Downing STrife.
April 23, 2021
“There is nothing wrong with charities, Trade Unions and businesses lobbying for policies that help them.”
Only if they – in particular those that call themselves “charities” – fully disclose how they are funded.
April 23, 2021
There is nothing wrong with lobbying, so long as it is transparent, but in these days of informal messaging, surely the recipient needs to be very careful that his reply does not give rise to expectations or implications of special treatment.
April 23, 2021
I think you have forgotten to include the lobbying from top civil servants who are also working at the same time for private (and foreign?) companies or other organisations.
Shouldn’t this lobbying be disclosed/made transparent?
April 23, 2021
The most successful lobbying of the Tories is clearly those who advocate open borders (Global Britain). There are a million jobseekers and yet the Tories continue to improve the access of aliens to our shores openings for 150 different trades and professions, qualified according to third world standards of intelligence and competence. Those who have attended tertiary courses here will be able to practice their newly found prowess on the English thereby offering another incentive to the third world to make use of our education system.
The PM may be looking to replace the rest of his cabinet with third worlders as he is clearly prejudiced against English men.
April 23, 2021
Talking of lobbying – I read that the travel industry is lobbying unelected bureaucrat David Frost about EU working visas for young Britons.
Before TPB (Tory pensioner Brexit) tens of thousands of mainly younger Britons used to work for British holiday companies in Europe every year. You had report reps in summer resorts, chalet staff and ski guides in winter and people working in bars, campsites and so on.
This used to be easy. British citizens were EU citizens – young people could just get a job with a British company and go. Indeed, I went myself for a few years in the 1990s and had some wonderful years making many friends. And, no, it wasnât jobs for posh middle class kids. On the contrary my mates there were pretty much all working class.
Brexit has taken this away from young Britons. Priti Patel closed our borders to young Europeans wanting to work here as part of her attempts to appease the unappeasable elderly Brexitists, so European countries have in part closed off their borders to young Brits.The travel industry wants this Brexit government to act. After all, we remember during your referendum campaign when Michael Gove said TBP would not affect our abilities to live, work, study, love in Europe. That was a bit of a porky.
Young people mostly didnât get a vote in your Brexit referendum and have had their rights removed anyway. I think the Brexitists do not yet realise the tsunami of anger that is coming their way.
April 23, 2021
Andy : “Before TPB (Tory pensioner Brexit) tens of thousands of mainly younger Britons used to work for British holiday companies in Europe every year. You had report reps in summer resorts, chalet staff and ski guides in winter and people working in bars, campsites and so on.”
This was not the case for ski instructors/guides working in France for decades. Even as late as 2014 the French were preventing British instructors from working in the French Alps for spurious reasons.
April 23, 2021
Andy : “Before TPB (Tory pensioner Brexit) tens of thousands of mainly younger Britons used to work for British holiday companies in Europe every year. You had report reps in summer resorts, chalet staff and ski guides in winter and people working in bars, campsites and so on.”
Younger Britons worked for British holiday companies in Europe in summer – particularly in their gap year – in the 1960s and hence well before we joined the Common Market.
So if they’re not allowed to do this any longer it will be down to the EU’s intransigence and spite and not because it wasn’t allowed in the past before the EU existed.
April 23, 2021
We will allow EU youngsters to come here andy.
Why won’t the EU do the same?
April 23, 2021
Quite right, Sir John. There is a good reason why Labour’s cries of ‘sleaze’ are not gaining traction in the country, and that’s because they are nonsense. Are critics really saying that ministers and civil servants should no longer talk to anyone? Not businessmen, not charities, not think tanks, not trade associations, not journalists, not their constituents, not their families …. After all, anyone you speak to is likely to try to persuade you to their viewpoint. In other words, to lobby you. Or is it the case that ‘some lobbyists good, other lobbyists bad’? Surely the more different viewpoints and sources of information a minister is subject to the better, as he is better informed to make his decisions.
April 23, 2021
Boris Johnson has said anyone who thinks there was something “dodgy or rum” in his dealings with Sir James Dyson is “out of their mind”. As if we would !!
The PM was responding to claims by Labour that he was personally involved in “sleaze” after texts between the two were revealed by the BBC.
April 23, 2021
All lobbyists, particularly those holding out their begging caps for taxpayers money, should operate in the full glare of publicity; no confidentiality – no ifs, no buts.
April 23, 2021
Now is the time to ramp up ventiator production at Dyson and to export them to India where there is a desperate need. There is no lack of air transport. Remember India is Commonwealth.
April 23, 2021
It’s a clever point, but I think that it really confirms the real issue, which is that *anyone* should be able to lobby, in the same way that anyone can go to court. The trick isn’t being able to lobby, or being able to sue, but being able to succeed.
Anyone should be able to have access to Government, and all we really have to do is to make it more transparent. Talk about banning lobbying is silly and counter-productive. In fact, talking about banning lobbying is just pandering to the fake moralizing approach to politics that appeals to superficial and unthinking people.
We ought to realise that lobbying is a resource, because lobbying brings new ideas into Government. We should also realise that talk of banning lobbying is just a very strange and indirect way of making policy. Ban lobbying, and you ban some inputs to Government, but not others. Banning inputs from business, but not from Unions and NGOs is a way of making policy, and it’s a very bad way, which, surprise surprise, happens to appeal to the left, which would like to have a monopoly on inputs for itself.
April 23, 2021
I asked a while ago what Boris would do once he had Brexit in the bag, and I think a clue is this morning’s St. George’s Day message. I think he is now going to manage the re-emergence of England as a sovereign state by handling Scottish Independence as a mutual agreement rather than as a break away. In other words, as a win for both sides rather than loss for the UK.
It would be very funny if Boris now sent a battle bus around England with a big number on the side representing how much it costs the English taxpayer to keep Scotland in the Union. If he did that, we’d probably end up legislating Scottish independence without even troubling them to hold a second referendum.
April 24, 2021
I guess if all the current headlines make no difference to May 6 local elections then all this will wither away, however I do believe its the start of the end of the UK.
Scottish independence is edging closer, and its up to the Scottish people to deal with any economic down turn. This will make the rest of the UK nations much weaker in the eyes of the world.
Many contributors here hope the EU will break up, I think the UK will break up.
April 24, 2021
I agree with most of what you post but not so much on this topic because there are too many lobbyists who then become MPs – far too cosy.