[OKFN-EN] Fwd: Please sign our petition on UK lobbying transparency

Mon Dec 9 17:37:21 UTC 2013

Hi all,

Just to let you know, we've just launched a petition on lobbying
transparency in the UK (see below for details).

Any help in signing or sharing would be very much appreciated!
http://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/secretlobbying

We really want to send a message to the government ahead of debate resuming
on 16th December.

If anyone has any cunning ideas about ways to promote this, please do pop
me a line!

All the best,

Jonathan

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Hi all,

We've just launched a petition on UK lobbying transparency, coordinated by
the Open Knowledge Foundation and the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency,
and endorsed by endorsed by Access Info, the Campaign for Freedom of
Information, Corporate Europe Observatory, Corporate Watch, Greenpeace,
Spinwatch, the Sunlight Foundation, Unlock Democracy and War on Want.

We'd very much appreciate any help in blogging, tweeting, and pushing this
out to your respective networks!

The petition itself is here: http://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/secretlobbying

Our blog post is here:
http://blog.okfn.org/2013/12/09/sign-our-petition-asking-the-uk-government-to-stop-secret-corporate-lobbying/

I've copied the text from the petition inline below.

More soon!

All the best,

Jonathan

## STOP SECRET CORPORATE LOBBYING

http://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/secretlobbying

TO: DAVID CAMERON AND NICK CLEGG

The government is poised to let corporate lobbyists off the hook: we have
just weeks to stop them. Having been slammed for proposals that unfairly
cracked down on charities, the government is now trying to pass a watered
down 'register of lobbyists', which would do nothing to stop the malign
influence of big corporations over our political system.

For a truly democratic result, all lobbyists must be obliged to say who
they’re meeting, what decisions they are seeking to influence and how much
they are spending. If the government is serious about rebuilding public
trust, it must rewrite its proposals for a lobbying register now, and keep
its promise to citizens.
Why is this important?

The UK has a £2 billion commercial lobbying industry - the third largest in
the world - that is embedded in our political system. But the government’s
current proposal would exclude the vast majority of commercial lobbyists
and give the rest an easy ride. The new rules would apply to as little as
5% of all lobbying activity, and those they did affect would hardly have to
provide any information at all.

David Cameron and Nick Clegg promised they would run the ‘the most open and
transparent government in the world’ but they have yet to deliver on their
promise to shine a light on secret corporate lobbying, which advances the
interests of the few at the expense of the many. This is their last chance
to propose a register that covers all lobbyists and includes meaningful
information about their activities.

This petition is coordinated by the Open Knowledge Foundation (
http://okfn.org) and the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency (
http://lobbyingtransparency.org) and endorsed by Access Info, the Campaign
for Freedom of Information, Corporate Europe Observatory, Corporate Watch,
Greenpeace, Spinwatch, the Sunlight Foundation, Unlock Democracy and War on
Want. If your organisation would like to endorse the petition, please send
an email to jonathan.gray at okfn.org.

-- 

Jonathan Gray

Director of Policy and Ideas  | *@jwyg <https://twitter.com/jwyg>*

The Open Knowledge Foundation <http://okfn.org/>

*Empowering through Open Knowledgeokfn.org <http://okfn.org/>  |  @okfn
<http://twitter.com/OKFN>  |  OKF on Facebook
<https://www.facebook.com/OKFNetwork>  |  Blog <http://blog.okfn.org/>  |
 Newsletter <http://okfn.org/about/newsletter>*
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