Lobbying A Scandal?

Tim at Full Fact has wriiten an excellent article on Lobbying called 'A scandal unknown?'

He uses the Headlines;

A lucrative business
Access – parliamentary passes
Embedded in Parliament
In Defence of Lobbying
Proposed solutions
A Postscript

To break down the analysis of lobbying.

Tim himself explains his article best;

'Everyone who works in politics is aware of the presence and influence of lobbying. Indeed, having worked in both public affairs and parliament myself, I was struck by the historian David Starkey’s recent remark that the modern UK Parliament was little more than “lobby fodder”. The rise of the lobbying industry risks drowning out the voices of those that do not have the money, access or know how to make their voices heard.

Full Fact decided to look at possible areas where the next lobbying scandal could arise and spoke to experts on all sides of the lobbying debate. We looked at the registers of MPs and Lords commercial interests. We also studied the register of interests for parliamentary staff'.


Please do have a read as this very much feeds into the Andrew Mackay Lobbying articles on Bracknell blog Should Andrew Mackay work for a political lobbying firm?

My personal belief is that lobbying has always had the potential to be a scandal all the way down the political line.