Tamasin Cave of Spinwatch is right to call for a statutory register of lobbyists.

If one had been in place Liam Fox wouldn’t now be twisting in the wind.

All three major parties say they all want to see a statutory register and legislation is pencilled in for next year.

The consultation promised by the Government cannot come too soon if the Coalition wants to stick to the timetable it has set itself.

Fortunately, much of the spade work was done by the Public Administration Select Committee in the last Parliament. Its January 2009 report (see below) set out the essential elements of a statutory register which, crucially, would include

 information about contacts between lobbyists and decision makers—essentially,

diary records and minutes of meetings. The aim would be to cover all meetings

and conversations between decision makers and outside interests.

The Coalition doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel. There are many examples of mandatory registers that are up and running.

In Canada, our closest cousin constitutionally, lobbing has been regulated for years.

Their on-line register gives details of the lobbyist, who was lobbied when and about what.

The Canadians also prohibit former MPs and Senators and other “Designated Public Office Holders” from lobbying for five years after leaving office. (see attachment below)

We are crying out for the same kind of blanket ban in the UK where a steady stream of former MPs morph into lavishly paid lobbyists within months of leaving the Commons.

Meanwhile, what is going to happen to Dr Fox who is being hounded by the press to give answers to a thousand questions?

I suspect he won’t be around for very much longer when even his admirers are calling for him to go

But one thing still perplexes me.

Why is it that a succession of lobbying scandals over recent years made so little impression on Fox?   

He asks us to believe it is only “with the benefit of hindsight” that he realised what he was doing was inadvisable. 

I should have taken great care to ensure a more transparent separation of Government, party political and private business and that meetings were properly recorded to protect myself and the Government from any suggestion of wrongdoing

If you swallow the “benefit of hindsight” line you will, I’m afraid, believe any old codswallop.

Fox knew boundaries were being blurred and lines were being crossed. 

To suggest otherwise is to insult his intelligence. 

Attachments:

Lobbying (Canada).pdf	[The Lobbying Act (Canada)]	200 Kb
Lobbying. PASC 2009.pdf	[PASC Lobbying 2009]	2280 Kb