Gagging and blacklisting bill overcomes first Parliamentary hurdle

Public opinion on lobbyists: Note the proximity of the words "corrupt", "cheats" and "influential".

Public opinion on lobbyists: Note the proximity of the words “corrupt”, “cheats” and “influential”. [Picture stolen from PR Week]

A Parliamentary Bill designed to prevent free speech by gagging political commentators, and to enable the ‘blacklisting’ of trade union members by having their names registered, has won the favour of Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs this evening.

They voted to allow the inappropriately-titled ‘Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill’ to proceed to its committee stage after a debate today (Tuesday).

That stage will last for only a few days, during which it will be examined by a ‘committee of the whole House’ – in other words, the Bill is being guillotined; hurried through Parliament in order to get it onto the statute books after the least possible scrutiny. It seems that the government has something to hide.

Could it be the fact that the Electoral Commission, the organisation that would enforce the Bill’s provisions if it is passed into law, has made it perfectly clear that it is an attempt to stifle political commentary from organisations and individuals: “The Bill creates significant regulatory uncertainty for large and small organisations that campaign on, or even discuss, public policy issues in the year before the…general election, and imposes significant new burdens on such organisations”?

Could it be the fact that new regulations for trade unions mean members could be blacklisted – denied jobs simply because of their membership?

Could it be the fact that the measures against lobbyists – the Bill’s apparent reason for existing – are expected to do nothing to hinder Big Money’s access to politicians, and in fact is likely to accelerate the process, turning Parliamentarians into corporate poodles?

If so, then the attempt has failed, because all of these, and more, were discussed in today’s debate.

But don’t worry – we have the assurances of Andrew Lansley, Leader of the House of Commons, to keep us from losing sleep over it. The man who asked us to believe his so-called reform of the National Health Service would not lead to wholesale privatisation – and look at it now – took a telling question from Glenda Jackson, early in his opening speech.

She said the Bill “has created almost a fire-storm in my constituency. My constituents are appalled at what they regard as a gagging Bill. They wish to see a list of lobbyists that is transparent to ensure that Government cannot be bought — even though that is a debatable issue. They know that the Bill as it stands would prevent democratic voices from being heard.”

Mr Lansley’s response: “I look forward to the Honourable Lady having an opportunity after today’s debate to go back to her constituents, to tell them that the things they are alarmed about will not happen.”

Let’s hold him to that, shall we? Bear in mind that lying to Parliament is an expulsion offence, even if this particular government does not enforce it. David Cameron and Iain Duncan Smith have already defied Parliamentary convention by telling appalling untruths to their fellow MPs and walking back to their jobs; now it seems likely Mr Lansley may have done the same.

High on the list of opposition MPs’ concerns was the fact that the Bill does nothing to prevent lobbyists working directly for commercial concerns from approaching government ministers and trying to influence them.

“Recent freedom of information requests reveal that Treasury officials met fracking industry representatives 19 times in the last 10 months about their generous tax breaks, yet the public are denied any further details of that lobbying on the grounds that it could prejudice commercial interests,” said Green MP Caroline Lucas. “Is the Leader of the House not ashamed that this Bill will drastically curtail the ability of charities to campaign in the public interest on issues such as fuel poverty and energy but do nothing to curb such secretive corporate influencing?”

And Labour’s Chris Bryant had a query of his own: “Every single member of the public affairs team in-house at BSkyB will be able to visit as many Ministers as they want and every single lawyer employed by BSkyB to advance its case will be able to do so without any need to register. The only person who would have to register would be an independent consultant in a company that solely lobbies. How does that possibly afford greater transparency?”

Mr Lansley’s response: “It promotes transparency because if a representative of Sky visits a Minister in order to discuss that business, it is transparent that they are doing so in order to represent the interests of Sky. However, if somebody from ‘XYZ Corporation’, a consultant lobbying firm, visits a Minister in order to discuss somebody else’s business but it is not transparent through the ministerial diary publication who they are representing, that is not transparent. We propose to remedy that by making it transparent.”

Oh, well that’s all right then.

No it isn’t! It’s the complete opposite of all right! Where the public wanted a curb on corporations corruptly influencing the government, it is instead offering to rub that influence in our faces!

“This is one of the worst Bills that I have seen any Government produce in a very long time,” said Lansley’s shadow, Angela Eagle. The last Bill this bad might even have been the Health and Social Care Act 2012, and the Leader of the House of Commons had his fingerprints all over that one, too… This Bill is hurried, badly drafted and an agglomeration of the inadequate, the sinister and the partisan. From a Government who solemnly promised that they would fix our broken politics, the Bill will do the complete opposite.

“The Bill can best be summed up as furious displacement activity by a Government who hope that the public will not notice their problems with lobbying… they are trying to ram through their gag on charities and campaigners… so that they are silenced in time for the next general election, and they are trying to avoid the scrutiny that will show the public what a disgrace the Bill is.”

She said: “Three and a half years ago the Prime Minister, when Leader of the Opposition, told us that lobbying was the next big scandal waiting to happen. He did not tell us then that he was going to do nothing about it for over three years but survive a series of lobbying scandals and then produce a Bill so flawed that it would actually make things worse.

“Under the Government’s definition, someone will count as a lobbyist only if they lobby, directly, Ministers or permanent secretaries and if their business is mainly for the purposes of lobbying. It is estimated that that will cover less than one-fifth of those people currently working in the £2 billion lobbying industry, and the Association of Professional Political Consultants estimates that only one per cent of ministerial meetings organised by lobbyists would be covered.

“It would be extremely easy to rearrange how such lobbying is conducted to evade the need to appear on the new register at all. The Bill is so narrow that it would fail to cover not only the lobbyist currently barnacle-scraping at the heart of Number 10 [Lynton Crosby], but any of the lobbying scandals that have beset the Prime Minister in this Parliament.

“There is a real risk that the proposals will make lobbying less transparent than it is now. The Government’s proposed register would cover fewer lobbyists than the existing, voluntary, register run by the UK Public Affairs Council.

Moving on to part two of the Bill, she said, “In one of the most sinister bits of legislation that I have seen in some time, this Bill twists the rules on third-party campaigning to scare charities and campaigners away from speaking out. It is an assault on the Big Society that the Prime Minister once claimed to revere… It is clear that these changes will have wide-ranging implications for many hundreds of charities and campaigners, local and national, large and small.

“Some of them have told us that they will have to pull back from almost all engagement in debates on public policy in the year before the election. These changes have created massive uncertainty for those who may fall within the regulations in a way that the Electoral Commission has deplored.

“The changes will mean that third-party campaigning will be restricted even if it was not intended to affect the outcome of an election — for example, engaging in public policy debate. Staff costs and overheads will also have to be included in what has to be declared — something that does not apply in this way to political parties. The Electoral Commission has said that these changes could have a ‘dampening effect’ on public debate. The National Council for Voluntary Organisations has said that the changes will ‘have the result of muting charities and groups of all sorts and sizes on the issues that matter most to them and the people that they support’.”

And on part three, which centres on trade union membership records, she said, “There appears to be no policy motive for the introduction of this new law other than as a vehicle for cheap, partisan attacks on the trade unions, of which only a minority are actually affiliated to the Labour party.

“Officials from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills have been totally unable to explain the problem that this part of the Bill is designed to solve. During a belated consultation meeting with the TUC — it took place after the Bill had been published — BIS officials could cast no light on why part three exists at all. Nor were they able to explain the origin of these proposals beyond their oft-repeated mantra that the provisions contained in part three ‘came out of a high level meeting between the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister’. I think that revelation tells us all we need to know about the grubby, partisan nature of the measures.

“These proposals seem deliberately designed to burden trade unions with additional cost and bureaucracy from a Government who claim they are against red tape. This is despite the fact that unions already have a statutory duty to maintain registers of members. I understand from the TUC that neither the certification officer nor ACAS has made any representations to suggest that that was not already sufficient. The Government have to date failed to provide any evidence or rationale for these changes, so I can only conclude that this is a deliberate attempt to hamper unions with red tape because a minority of them have the temerity to support the Labour party.”

And she said: “I have serious concerns about the implications of these changes for the security of membership data. We all know that the blacklisting of trade union members may well still exist in our country. Blacklisting has ruined many lives and these changes could have some very dangerous implications, especially in the construction industry, where many are afraid to declare their membership of a trade union openly for fear of the repercussions.”

And Graham Allen, Chair of the Select Committee on Political and Constitutional Reform, lambasted the Bill. He said: “If someone wanted to do O-level politics on how to produce or not to produce a Bill, I am sorry, but this Bill would be an F — a fail, big time.

“Read the evidence from the Electoral Commission when I publish it in 48 hours’ time. It is damning evidence from people who should really all be on the same side to ensure this provision will happen.

“We should listen to people. Let us have some consultation; let Parliament do its job, smoke out some of the issues and attempt to resolve them. I have a fantastic all-party committee and we could do that job for Parliament, yet those things have been resolutely held at arm’s length.

“Perversely, we are trying to make a Bill that divides rather than keeps people together.”

It isn’t perverse at all. That is precisely the point of it.

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26 Comments

  1. […] A Parliamentary Bill designed to prevent free speech by gagging political commentators, and to enable the 'blacklisting' of trade union members by having their names registered, has won the favour …  […]

  2. Thomas September 4, 2013 at 12:49 am - Reply

    This government is one of the worst ever-instead of fixing the problem, all this will do is make people too scared to speak against them for fear of facing trial or at least having to write loads of paperwork. There seems no limit to how low this government will go.

    • joanna September 6, 2013 at 1:07 pm - Reply

      I’m not scared! you can’t be sued for telling the truth or saying your opinion, is your own! if gagging orders did come in then I would learn how to do a blog and be all over the internet like a rash!!! The government is just reaching!!!

  3. Cath White September 4, 2013 at 7:42 am - Reply

    The tory party are very very afraid of what the public think of them. However, tyring to gag the public will only result in their demise.This bill as it stands is undemocratic.This Bill is trying to stop the peoples Unions and Charirable bodies from speaking out about the unjustifable and inhumane nature of tory policy.

  4. Michael Quick September 4, 2013 at 8:19 am - Reply

    Welcome to the Dictatorship, said this for a long time now,and this con-litition are the end before the begining of unrest!

  5. Sonophos September 4, 2013 at 8:39 am - Reply

    Could charities, unions and organisations list themselves as UK political parties to bypass this law? 1 £500 deposit in 1 election would negate the campaigning rules in this. I’d join the 38 degrees party and I would just love to see how many Tory seats would be swamped with small party; single issue candidates.

    • Double Karma September 4, 2013 at 3:00 pm - Reply

      that could be an idea Sonophos

    • Thomas September 4, 2013 at 7:37 pm - Reply

      With our electoral system, that would dilute the anti Tory/Lib Dem vote amongst so many small micro-parties that the Tory or Lib Dem would slip through. Although if they all registered in one constituency, it might work.

    • joanna September 6, 2013 at 1:13 pm - Reply

      If charities became affiliated with political parties some of them would go under, like some did with the workfare!!!

  6. Samwise Gamgee September 4, 2013 at 11:00 am - Reply

    I wonder how this bill will affect the outpourings of the self-appointed “Taxpayers’ Alliance”?

    Here’s an example of the ignorant nonsense produced by this Tory offshoot, as reported by Boycott Welfare:

    http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?p=2947

    Direct link to the report:

    http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/workforthedole.pdf

    Of course I’m not advocating for the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill, but I do have to wonder how (or even if) the TPA would be affected by it.

  7. nuggy September 4, 2013 at 4:17 pm - Reply

    they could easily get around this by registering in Scotland.

  8. nuggy September 4, 2013 at 4:21 pm - Reply

    they wont be able to do anything about Scottish campaign groups.

  9. Adam Clifford September 4, 2013 at 4:49 pm - Reply

    The tories have been very clever.They used the economic situation to stir up public contempt for welfare recipients,who they characterised as takers/scroungers,even when most welfare benefits were paid to low-waged workers,and then introduced draconian welfare and disability ‘reforms’.The tax avoiders/evaders,individual and corporate were subject to hot air and the rush of wind as sacked tax employees left their jobs. .With this bill,we see the tories operating again.Using the pretext of transparent lobbying to shut down democracy.
    It is not unfeasible that the tories are like a hit squad,damaging as much as they can of civic life,and commodifying and marketising as much of the public sector.This legislation is very adept,as was the introduction of the Mckinsey and Company drafted H&SC Bill. The sheer incompetence of the tories and one failed policy after another,all transparently useless,and then you get this policy,the H&SC Bill,the Welfare and Disability reforms couched in media induced public frenzy of contempt,then there is the trashing of anything NHS,staff included,media whipping up maximum damage,and then Hunt and co riding in justifications on the back of media- whipped campaigns.
    And do the coalitionists really have the legal power to do all this?They are going to go on their media assisted rampage until they are stopped.The electorate are either ultra supine and compliant,deathly apathetic,or criminally misinformed,and constitutionally,the UK is pants.
    And the opposition.Silently,catastrophically,treacherously inept.

    • Thomas September 4, 2013 at 7:46 pm - Reply

      The British people either do nothing or riot, it seems.

  10. nuggy September 4, 2013 at 6:53 pm - Reply

    this bill must be challenged in the courts if it gos through/

    i think it breaches the human rights act.

  11. Thomas September 4, 2013 at 9:29 pm - Reply

    Blogs like this would be gagged, or at least would have to jump through a lot of hoops.

  12. Paul Jenkins September 4, 2013 at 10:02 pm - Reply

    by gaging us all , with this bill do they really think the bad press will go away ,and give them another term in power. people may not be able to speak there mind ,publicly but we don’t forget the all shit they have caused ,

    questions are why are labour and UKIP not challenging this . this to me looks like desperation trying to stay in power in 2015 ,by gagging every thing

    • Mike Sivier September 5, 2013 at 12:09 am - Reply

      Are you kidding? Labour fought it tooth and nail in the second reading debate on Tuesday. UKIP can’t do much about it, as they don’t have any members of Parliament.
      I agree with you completely about it being desperation.

      • Thomas M September 5, 2013 at 1:38 am - Reply

        It might bounce back on them when the people vote, and result in another Labour landslide.

  13. Sharon Hutchins September 5, 2013 at 12:35 pm - Reply

    Open them eyes Peeps.

  14. rainbowwarriorlizzie September 7, 2013 at 12:38 pm - Reply
  15. […] As reported here on September 4, the bill is an attempt to stifle political commentary from organisations and individuals. […]

  16. […] MPs have fought so assiduously to obtain, over the eight months or so that this legislation, “one of the worst… any government produce[d] in a very long time”, has spent being digested by […]

  17. […] MPs have fought so assiduously to obtain, over the eight months or so that this legislation, “one of the worst… any government produce[d] in a very long time”, has spent being digested by […]

  18. […] MPs have fought so assiduously to obtain, over the eight months or so that this legislation, “one of the worst… any government produce[d] in a very long time”, has spent being digested by […]

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