- GOVERNMENT
- Governments are unlikely to be neutral and will favour donors and groups supporting their agenda.
- While the UK certainly does have a large number of pressure groups competing for influence, it is arguably inevitable that groups pursuing aims that are in line with the government’s agenda stand to have more success.
- When Labour is in power, Conservative critics claim that trade unions are given too much influence, arguing that the party is unwilling to stand up to them because they are responsible for so much of the party’s funding.
- However, the same criticisms are made about Conservative governments, arguing that the party is reluctant to stand up to banks and big businesses because they rely upon them for donations.
- It is argued that members of the Conservative Party’s ‘Leader’s Group’, a dining club open to donors giving at least £50,000 per year, involving regular dinners or drinks with the Prime Minister and other senior ministers, are likely to be listened to more sympathetically than outsider groups that are challenging the government’s agenda.
- 2.LOBBYING REGULATION
- The statutory regulation of lobbying and donations is arguably far too weak.
- Pressure groups can make unlimited donations to political parties, and only donations over £7,500 have be declared and made public.
- If the public does not even know who is lobbying the government, it is very difficult to see if the government is being balanced.
- In 2010, journalists secretly filmed MPs and Lords as they attempted to buy their influence in Parliament, offering them money to support their cause.
- In October 2012, several retired army officers were caught claiming that they could help weapons manufacturers to secure contracts by exploiting their contacts and connections.
- BUT The Transparency of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act (2014), introduced much tighter spending limits on political activities, cutting the amount that groups can spend influencing elections by around 60% from £793,000 to £320,000.
- 3.WEALTH
- Wealthier groups still enjoy far more opportunities.
- They can exploit the revolving door in Parliament to hire retired MPs or staff as advisors, or professional lobbying firms, to make use of their contacts/experience.
- In 2011, undercover journalists filmed the chief lobbyist at the lobbying firm Bell Pottinger boasting that, on behalf of the vacuum manufacturer Dyson, they had ensured that the Prime Minister raised concerns over copyright infringement while meeting with leaders in China.
- Claims such as these suggest that, with the right amount of money, a pressure group can ensure that their voice is significantly louder than their rivals’.
- Such methods are arguably more effective than the ‘clicktivism’ of online petitions and campaigns that may attract an impressive number of supporters but can be more easily dismissed than face-to-face lobbying.