If you have something to say...
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The Blog
I was as bemused as any man when I heard of Antony Worrall Thompson's arrest... But my very next thought was of Nicolas Robinson. He is the 23-year-old who was arrested for stealing water worth £3.50 from Lidl during the London Riots.
Anyone need to meet some politicians and influence government policy? If you and your company do, there are thousands of public affairs or lobbying companies in Britain touting their wares to business and interest groups, as being capable of arranging a quiet coffee with a minister, a meeting with a civil servant, or organising an invite-only dinner with MPs.
It has only been a few days since Liam Fox announced his resignation as defence secretary, but no doubt there have already been questions over the gov...
Colonel Gaddafi has been killed in Libya after 42 years of a brutal dictatorship. The Libyan people will be celebrating tonight but if, as appears likely, he was killed after suffering wounds from a NATO aircraft it raises questions about the legality of the bombing campaign in Libya.
We shouldn't worry about lobbyists because the industry is actually in its death throes. It is poised to disappear with the power shift from politics to wider society which will take secret decision making, unofficial advisers, and funny handshakes with it.
When the new e-petitions system went live all the talk was of the return of the death penalty. Those of us of a more liberal mindset braced ourselves for an outpouring of the most reactionary, kneejerk populism imaginable.
The Fox affair yet again demonstrates the media's inability to ascertain what is, and what is not, a 'lobbying scandal'. It also demonstrates a peculiar and irritating habit of putting the lobbying industry in the frame rather than seeing when it is the lobbied - not the lobbyists - that need to pull their socks up.
It is difficult to think of any situation where upon being fired, an employee then considers themselves in line for a promotion. But just days after Liam Fox's forced resignation, Ladbrokes was already offering odds of 25-1 for him to be next Conservative leader.
Tomorrow we will get the Cabinet Office report on the Adam Werritty affair and one thing is clear - Werritty was not part of the current self-regulatory process, not a member of CIPR Public Affairs, the Association of Professional Political Consultants (APPC), or the PRCA.
Over the weekend, friendship died. Liam Fox resigned, and I guess afterwards Adam Werritty had to hold a pretend press conference where he announced that he was resigning as fake special advisor to Fox. The make-believe event was attended mostly by pixies, elves and The Independent.
It's not a question of whether Liam Fox was a victim of a media witch-hunt or whether he simply broke the rules and faced the music. When David Camer...
There is absolutely no doubt that Liam Fox is an excellent Secretary of State and MP. He's been on the front bench for some time, having earned high esteem from colleagues and constituents. But what should we make of Werritty?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifWmihTGecs&feature=player_embedded Nick Boles MP offered a fatuous and increasingly irascible 'defence' of Liam Fox t...
It is the height of folly not to review Defence spending now that we are committed to yet another major operation. Margaret Thatcher in 1982 realised that she would cease to be Prime Minister if the Falklands issue went wrong.
It is the height of folly not to review Defence spending now that we are committed to yet another major operation.
