Britain 'shines light of transparency' on secret lobbying. Just kidding. | openDemocracy

Britain 'shines light of transparency' on secret lobbying. Just kidding. | openDemocracy

Today
the government’s proposed
Lobbying Bill
will go into 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,
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”.

 

 

 

Government wants to register Lobbying Agencies alone (Alliance for Lobbying Transparency)