[open-government] Fwd: Lobbying bill will make a mockery of UK open government aspirations

Tue Jan 28 09:27:49 UTC 2014

(Apologies for cross-posting.)

I thought this might be of interest to some of you. Any help in sharing
would be much appreciated!

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

The UK's draft Lobbying
Bill<http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2013-14/transparencyoflobbyingnonpartycampaigningandtradeunionadministration.html>is
scheduled to go into parliamentary
ping pong <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentary_ping-pong> in the
House of Lords and the House of Commons today and tomorrow.

We're just published a
piece<http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/jonathan-gray/britain-shines-light-of-transparency-on-secret-lobbying-just-kidding>with
Open Democracy arguing that, if passed, the bill will do nothing to
stop secret corporate lobbying and will make a mockery of UK's aspiration
to be - in the words of Prime Minister David Cameron - "the most open and
transparent government in the world".

Any help in sharing this (also copied below), and the petition, would be
much appreciated!

http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/jonathan-gray/britain-shines-light-of-transparency-on-secret-lobbying-just-kidding

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-secret-corporate-lobbying

Thanks!

Jonathan

Britain 'shines light of transparency' on secret lobbying. Just kidding.
JONATHAN GRAY <http://www.opendemocracy.net/author/jonathan-gray> 28
January 2014
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David Cameron's lobbying bill exposes the hollowness of his muscular claims
about cracking down on crony capitalism. Britain's democracy remains under
corporate capture.

<http://dy1m18dp41gup.cloudfront.net/cdn/farfuture/Px3rEG6R00bYLVhqNhtgYigc7dluCHIDC7fDJzcbCAE/mtime:1390847767/files/imagecache/wysiwyg_imageupload_lightbox_preset/wysiwyg_imageupload/536680/influenceindustry.png>Government
wants to register Lobbying Agencies alone (Alliance for Lobbying
Transparency)

Today the government's proposed Lobbying
Bill<http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2013-14/transparencyoflobbyingnonpartycampaigningandtradeunionadministration.html>
will
go into parliamentary
ping-pong<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentary_ping-pong>
between
the House of Commons and the House of Lords. If this Bill passes without
significant amendments it will do nothing to stop secret corporate
lobbying, making a mockery of the coalition's open government aspirations.

Every year an estimated £2 billion is spent attempting to influence
decisions in Westminster, an amount that is topped only by spending in
Washington and Brussels. Even more than its counterparts across the channel
and across the pond, London's lobbying industry has been able to operate in
the dark, free from scrutiny and interference: unregulated, unrecorded and
unimpeded.

Four years ago next month, just before the 2010 general election, David
Cameron announced his
intention<https://web.archive.org/web/20100212012031/http://www.conservatives.com/News/Speeches/2010/02/David_Cameron_Rebuilding_trust_in_politics.aspx>,
if elected, to tackle the "unhealthy influence" of "secret corporate
lobbying". He pledged to "sort out" what he called "crony capitalism", to
shine the "light of transparency" on lobbying, and to force our political
system to "come clean about who is buying power and influence".

The theme of his speech was "rebuilding trust in politics". He attacked
then Prime Minister Gordon Brown's "secretive, power-hoarding, controlling"
government, and its handling of the 2009 parliamentary expenses
scandal<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_parliamentary_expenses_scandal>
.

Transparency has since become a major theme of the coalition government
under Cameron, who has claimed repeatedly that he wants to "fix our broken
politics" and make the UK "the most open and transparent government in the
world".

Fast forward to the government's proposed lobbying bill, tabled for
discussion in parliament today. The second part of the bill has been widely
criticised for gagging charities during election periods. The first part,
which outlines plans for the lobbying registry, has received less public
attention.

Far from shining a light on the activities of the influence industry, the
proposed registry would exclude the vast majority of commercial lobbyists,
covering as little as 5 per cent of all lobbying activity. Among the
excluded, all 'in-house' lobbyists -- those based at major corporations,
banks, consultancies, law firms, accountancy firms. Even the registered
lobbyists would not be required to give the public information about what
they are asking for, who they are meeting with, or how much they are
spending.

How do the government's proposals compare with a real statutory register of
lobbyists? Here's an illustration from The Alliance for Lobbying
Transparency<http://www.lobbyingtransparency.org/15-blog/general/93-register-of-lobbyists-will-cameron-bodge-it>
:

<http://dy1m18dp41gup.cloudfront.net/cdn/farfuture/i4iMkWSOsCDQq1yylwQ73Krfk91Hift2pggdRlMFfW0/mtime:1390847965/files/imagecache/wysiwyg_imageupload_lightbox_preset/wysiwyg_imageupload/536680/registerproposals.png>

Unless it is scrapped and rewritten or major amendments are made - both
exceedingly unlikely - the lobbying bill will make a mockery of the UK's
open government purported aspirations. It will leave the British public
none the wiser as to how big money and big business are distorting the
fabric of public political discourse and decision-making, and to what end.
It will do nothing to shed light on how powerful corporate interests are
exerting their influence<http://www.buzzfeed.com/okfn/5-reasons-to-stop-secret-corporate-lobbying-hhyu>
to
shape what is politically possible and politically likely - from inaction
on climate change and corporate tax avoidance, to fracking, energy prices
and the privatisation of public services.

Even a decent registry of lobbyists would give us just a faint sketch of
the impact of corporate lobbying on our democracy. The fight for
transparency is just a first step that must not distract us from the bigger
and more important fight to push back against the malign, distorting,
anti-democratic influence of big money and big business on politics.

The passage of the proposed lobbying bill into law would represent a
manifest failure of the current government to take even the most elementary
of steps to live up to its pre-election promises to tackle secret corporate
influence. It will no doubt be remembered as an historic missed opportunity
and an astonishing defeat at the first hurdle - making the UK's claims to
global leadership in government openness and accountability look like a
joke.

The Open Knowledge Foundation <http://okfn.org/> and the Alliance for
Lobbying Transparency <http://www.lobbyingtransparency.org/>have launched a
petition asking the UK government to scrap and rewrite the lobbying bill.
You can sign here<https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-secret-corporate-lobbying>.
It is endorsed by Access Info, the Campaign for Freedom of Information,
Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, Corporate Europe Observatory,
Corporate Watch, Greenpeace, Integrity Action, Involve, the Open Rights
Group, Spinwatch, the Sunlight Foundation, Unlock Democracy, War on Want
and the World Development Movement.

-- 

-- 

Jonathan Gray

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

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

*Empowering through Open Knowledge okfn.org <http://okfn.org/>  |  @okfn
<http://twitter.com/OKFN>  |  OKF on Facebook
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