Your Lobbying Bad, My Lobbying Not … So Bad?

Tamasin Cave, of the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency on the Today in Parliament for March 2, 2012:

Note:

1. Tamasin Cave neatly sidesteps the lobbying by the BMA and the Royal College of Nursing
2. Ms. Cave correctly points out the first order relationship between the lobbying for NHS reforms and the size of the NHS budget (around 100 B GBP).
3. However Ms. Cave then fails to see the second-order relationship i.e. lobbying is directly related to and caused by the power of the government to grant special favours. As long as government has the power to dispense such special favours, groups will continue to lobby it.
4. If you want to reduce lobbying, if you want to control it, then reduce the power and size of the government to dole out special favours.
   
   

Because of the enormous benefits that can be won from the political process, it is rational for interest groups to spend large sums on lobbying for special privileges – an activity known as ‘rent seeking’.^[1]

[1] Butler, E., Public Choice — A Primer, The Institute of Economic Affairs, 2012, p. 16 ↩

The Greatest Generation

There is a reason why they are called The Greatest Generation

Why Yes Minister is vastly superior to The West Wing

From the BBC Radio 4 Documentary of the Week of March 2, 2012