There are 400 ‘business representatives’ at the Labour Party conference this week, to highlight an interesting choice of words found in a recent Financial Times report. I am kind of hoping that the phrase is an unnecessarily imprecise synonym for ‘exhibitors’. But if the rules have been changed while I wasn’t looking and the Confederation of [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Lobbying’
Will Cameron stop corrupt dinners for policy change?
Apr 10th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.After Peter Cruddas, what? Now the brash, up-market barrow boy’s been topped, Tory central office has of course gone very quiet. But since the 23 dinners grace of Cameron/Osborne that we now know about raised several million pounds, it’s unlikely they will cease – just be ever so much more discreet. Bookmarks Hide Sites
Lobbyists can still sleep soundly
Jan 22nd, 2012 by Michael Meacher.The Cameron technique becomes clearer by the day: Pick up a problem that is causing public anger, make an instant speech declaring himself fully on-side, and then hit it with a wet flannel. Bankers crash the economy and spark a slump – set up a Commission years later, then endorse its conclusions that are too [...]
Prevarication, obfuscation and delay are the government’s watchwords for lobbying
Jan 20th, 2012 by Jon Trickett.Prevarication. Obfuscation. Delay. These have been the three Government watchwords as they try to work out what to do with the lobbying industry. Finally released after months of delay, the Government report on lobbying has been sneaked out in the form of a written statement on a quiet Friday morning. Bookmarks Hide Sites
Where Fox goes, is Gove far behind?
Oct 20th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.The Government has set great store on claiming that the Fox saga was a one-off. He had broken the Ministerial code, he had refused to heed warnings from his Permanent Secretary that his behaviour was outside the constitutional guidelines for such a sensitive position, and in effect he was running a privatised foreign and defence [...]
Register thinktanks as well as lobbyists
Oct 18th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.George Monbiot in (yet another) forceful defence of democratic transparency draws attention to Atlantic Bridge, founded by the disgraced Liam Fox and registered with the Charity Commission as a thinktank, but actually a lobby organisation demanding the usual right-wing menu of deregulation, privatisation, tax breaks, and cuts in public expenditure (apart from defence of course). Bookmarks Hide [...]
The implications of Werrity
Oct 13th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.The Werrity saga gets murkier. In particular, apart from any personal matters, did he profit from his friendship with Fox? If he went with Fox on 19 of his trips around the world in the past 18 months, why did nobody in the civil service blow the whistle that something suspicious might be going on, [...]
The real Adam Werrity scandal
Oct 10th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.The key point about the weekend revelations over Adam Werrity is not just, or even mainly, whether Fox keeps his job or not. The real scandal is that Werrity was able to inveigle himself into so many compromising situations without anyone calling a stop to it or blowing the whistle. Indeed had it not been [...]
Ministerial ‘buddies’ for business: cutting to the chase
Sep 23rd, 2011 by David Osler.I suppose it is theoretically possible that, at some point in the last few decades, an important chief executive has rung up a government minister, asked to arrange a meeting, and been turned down flat. But my guess would be that this hasn’t happened too often. All mainstream parties are keen to stress their pro-business [...]
