R4 10 part series by Michael Crick 'Tales from the Lobby', the 'next biggest scandal waiting to happen? 1.45 pm

[R0wantrees]

"Radio 4 brings its multifocal lens to the lobbying industry. A 400-year-old scandal waiting to happen.

What is lobbying?
Tales from the LobbySeries 1

Almost a decade ago, David Cameron gave a speech about "the lunches, the hospitality, the quiet word in your ear." His target was lobbying, corporate lobbying, which he described as the next big scandal waiting to happen. So what is lobbying? And when is that scandal going to blow?"

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0006ln7

Oh interesting. Thanks for the heads up I’ll be listening.

Thanks, that looks really interesting.

Thanks for the link, I listened to the first part yesterday.
I read this article which I think might be relevant:
www.newstatesman.com/2019/06/we-know-lot-less-we-think-about-world-which-explains-allure-simplism
Ian Leslie is talking about something he calls 'simplism' - the desire to think of things in simple terms, because fully appreciating the complexity of the world around us is exhausting. He talks about how we tend to believe we understand things much better than we really do.

This is an aspect of human psychology that I think lobbyists exploit. Policy makers have to actively make decisions. I think it's when you have to make decisions about something that the deficit in your detailed understanding of it becomes suddenly apparent to you. But here's a friendly lobbyist, someone telling you confidently, firmly and simply, what you need to do.

No need to spend ages getting to grips with the complexities, no need to feel overwhelming imposter syndrome as you realise you haven't a clue, just do what the nice lobbyist says. And if it's an issue where there's only lobbying on one side because people who might object haven't even had time to realise what's being proposed, all the better.

Mermoose, I'm sure you're spot on with that.

It's the same as managers who say "Don't bring me problems, bring me solutions."

PerkingFaintly That's quite funny because when I first read that article both DH and I said it described his manager.
Of course once the advice has been taken the manager/policy maker becomes invested in it being correct and that affects how they view arguments on both sides afterwards.

Next big scandal?

I think we have a pile of them coming tbh.

The rich and powerful individuals and lobby groups being above the law is really the big story of the moment tbh. It's everywhere from Stonewall to Sugar. It's affecting both the left and right in different ways. On the right it's purely economic. On the left its the packaging of progressiveness as a lifestyle choice which you should all buy into without critical thought.

I would like to believe that lobbying would be something that provokes a huge scandal however as is being demonstrated by Mr Trump I think the exact opposite is about to happen in the UK and we are going to be devastated by it on a scale we can't yet comprehend before there is any real push back against it. The pace of it us accelerating as media scrutiny is weakening and the public is easily distracted by puff pieces or dog whistles.

I'd love to be wrong but I just don't see this as being the next scandal. It's our future and the way of life we are going to end up having to get used to because not enough politicians will stick their neck out to prevent it as its career ending to do so.

The reason that it will continue is a lot to do with the blindness the left have to how lobbying on the left is being successful and how it is intertwined with political identity - thus their own political messages. They can not restrict lobbying without affecting their own political apparatus.

IMHO The next scandal to hit these shores is going to be Epstein and the subsequent cover up followed by him getting off either scot free or with a ridiculously lenient sentence which will leave people wondering who the fuck let that happen. And of course will raise issues over child protection and sexual abuse which in turn will have to be buried and weakened to protect those who are up to their neck in the Epstein related shit. Probably by a rampant smear campaign as part of the culture war, in which the public are the biggest losers particularly the weakest in society.

Corruption in plain sight and a degeneration of transparency and accountability is destroying democracy and the states responsibility to act in the interest of the people its supposed to serve. Instead the state used against the people is being used to further the power and economics of those at the top.

All of these is at odds with the concept of rights. Hence the movement to 'rewrite' rip up the human rights act and the desire to weaken protections by leaving the EU. Or to undermine the rights of woman or minorities via the back door (think the anti-semitism and trans rows).

It's all part of the same pattern of neo-liberalism on steroids.

And its all about as far from a collapse as you can get, contrary to Crick's belief.

Sorry to be rather bleak about it all. But there we go. No one is paying attention to the big picture cos they are too wrapped up in their own tribalism to focus on the core of issues.

Of course once the advice has been taken the manager/policy maker becomes invested in it being correct and that affects how they view arguments on both sides afterwards.

Oh so true.

Hence the need (for the common good) to get both sides in front of the manager BEFORE they commit... and the rush by the lobbyist/salesperson to prevent this!

There's nothing like getting your buyer "locked in"...