Clegg’s Other Lobbyist
With the LibDems trying to have their “told-you-so-moment” over a register of lobbyists, Guido drew your attention yesterday to the controversial spinmeister Clegg has brought into the heart of his operation – Olly Grender. Overnight many a co-conspirator also pointed out that Clegg’s Chief of Staff Jonny Oates is another flesh presser…
Starting at Westminster Strategy in the nineties, Oates worked his way up to become a director at Bell Pottinger in 2004. With a host of international and UK clients that would put any sandal-wearing LibDem member off their lentils, Bell Pottinger are the largest UK firm to refuse to take part in any of the voluntary regulation schemes that are around. Their chairman Peter Bingle has been at the forefront of defending the industry this week. Almost a lone public voice…
So two of Clegg’s closest advisers right now are former lobbyists. His promised clean up of the body politic clearly doesn’t start at home…
Get the gunpowder!
David Cameron was last night accused of pandering to the lobbying industry – as it emerged an extraordinary network of his own friends has taken up key positions in the sector.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2050302/As-David-Cameron-delays-lobbyist-crackdown-Downing-Street-network-revealed.html#ixzz1b7gEryJo
http://order-order.com/2011/10/17/miliband-voted-against-lobbyist-register-in-2006/
Tom Watson’s dirty big secret is beginning to be revealed, watch this space!
Change is now likely to be delayed until at least 2013 – with lobbyists hoping it could be put off still further once the row over Dr Fox has died down. Aides to Mr Clegg – whose wife Miriam is a senior figure at law firm DLA Piper, which offers lobbying services – was unable to say why it had been delayed.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2050302/As-David-Cameron-delays-lobbyist-crackdown-Downing-Street-network-revealed.html#ixzz1b8CWT800
Is it easier for Homesexual men to be lobbyists? I could always f–k my way to the Top, instead of how Women get F–ked by the Top.
Could it be why the Government want more FTSE 100 companies with more Sexual favours being passed around the board. A few more Women who are the Wives of some Government ministers who aren’t getting any at home. What a fu–ing S–m
I’ve got the sticks of dynamite, now please bend over Billy
Clegg is a Eurocrat at heart, which means this kind of amoral behaviour hardly registers for him. he wouldn’t even realise his own glaring hypocrisy.
The whole political class are Eurocrats because if they fail here they can jump on the Euro gravytrain. We need to convert or eliminate this with a referendum.
Limp Dumbs are failures by definition so they support Euroland more.
Chop off ‘is knob, the knob !
Poor old Guido. How on earth can you fit this story – of the lib dems calling it spot on, and your tories being caught with dirt – into your transparent ‘Smear The Yellows at All Costs’ narrative?
Oh I see, by treating any adviser with a pr background as some kind of Sith Lord (stem cell research clients – the horror!)
Weak, desperate stuff
Really? Employing people who are advocates of the the things that you and your party supposedly oppose is not a glaring contridiction? These former lobbyists are working for companies as odious (to the Lib Dems) as the BNP. No problems with that though! Think you just highlighted the whole issue – that the Lib Dems really are the sticky yellow stain of UK Politics….
Wrong plot.
John Bercow, the House of Commons Speaker, has refused to cut his lucrative pension arrangements in line with other MPs and ministers, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
John Bercow ignores pleas to reduce his pension
John Bercow, the House of Commons Spe aker, has refused to cut his lucrative pension arrangements in line with other MPs and ministers, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne are among the top Tories who have benefited personally from the former Goldman Sachs banker.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2050302/As-David-Cameron-delays-lobbyist-crackdown-Downing-Street-network-revealed.html#ixzz1b7gT6g8i
We rule the world
That is why we are so royally bailed out every time the business goes tits up
But we keep our bonuses of course
Just what you would expect from a complete self-obsessed c*unt.
Why do people call us FibDems ?
Warren Gatland: Wales considered faking injury in defeat to France
• ‘Morally, it wasn’t the right thing to do,’ says Gatland
Gatland continued: “I will give you an example with what happened after that. We’d already lost Adam Jones, and we discussed in the [coaches] box whether we would fake an injury to one of our props and go to uncontested scrums.
Is there anyone in a position of authority who is not a pig fucking cheat?
wankers wanker wankers
but they didn’t cheat…..
Isn’t “Wales” welsh for cheat?
Don’t you think that they had a serious discussion about whether to or not is interesting?
If you ‘welsh’ on a deal, is that cheating?
yes it is, but ultimately they decided not to because it would be morally wrong.. just because you look at a girl and think about fucking her it doesn’t make you an adulterer does it??
or do we have “thought crime” nowadays?
ps, i’m certainly no fan of the welsh.
Save the Whales
boulay – are you not aware of conspiracy offences? – discussing things with someone else is different from thinking it yourself
fucking a girl isn’t against the rules of the game. Feigning an injury is an not something you’d think a reputable team would even consider.
Richard Nixon famously said, about paying off the burglars of his opponent’s HQ office to ensure silence, that ‘..we COULD do it, but it would be wrong…’ Don’t you think that it is interesting they even had a discussion about it?
Personally I think it’s disgusting. He should be sacked. Immeadiately.
If I came round your house and said “I was going to steal your wife’s jewellery, but I didn’t” what would you think of me? Morally upstanding? I don’t thnk so.
Change what change.
Why whould you expect anything else from a “liberal”?
I think you’re missing the point of the adjective “former”. If they go back to being lobbyists after working for Clegg, then I think you might have more cause to be upset.
After all aren’t you a former PR man yourself? And a former City worker? I just think this makes you better informed… doesn’t it?
In exactly the same way as we should have an ex-prisoner as Prisons Minister.
Sounds fair enough to me – after all if they are an ex-prisoner they have paid their debt to society (if you think prison/rehabilitation works) and they would be much better informed about day-to-day prison life than some former soldier (there’s that word former again) who got bored, became a Special Adviser, then ran for Parliament and sucked up to the Party leadership.
I think we should appoint a Revolving Door as Prime Minister
My hoss would be even better
We should do it by lottery.
Demarchy would be wonderful…
Thank you Bishop !
’Occupy London’ is alive and kicking..with a committed desire from all to ‘Keep it peaceful……full occupation is on and harmony between protestors and The City Police is very apparent. Working groups are getting organized; legal observers are in place; supply systems are up and there about 100 tents on the grounds of St Paul’s cathedral. And many thanks to the Bishop of St Paul’s cathedral…, the Reverend Giles Fraser. He stood on the steps of the cathedral on saturday night, flanked by riot police and addressed the large uneasy crowd. He asked the Met police to leave and for the protestors to remain. This peaceful demonstration and the support it is now receiving from all, should be an example to similar protests globally
The DPM is leading the Government’s programme to bring about comprehensive renewal of our political system. This will include legislation to:
•introduce fixed term Parliaments
•hold a referendum on the Alternative Vote system for elections to the House of Commons
•create fewer and more equal sized parliamentary constituencies
•introduce a power for people to recall their MP
•speed up implementation of individual voter registration
•reform party funding
•introduce a statutory register of lobbyists
•to help people with disabilities to become MPs.
http://www.dpm.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/deputy-prime-minister/role-and-responsibilities
it’s just like putting the police in charge of the police, they will do what suits them, without a thought for the voters, so there is no change really.
1. Makes it more difficult to get rid of a lame-duck government or hung Parliament.
2. AV has already ben rejected. If you want more democracy, you need PR.
3. Fewer constituencies would mean fewer backbenchers and more power for the executive; more dominance by the bigger parties; less representative Parliaments.
4. Would be exploited by the party that lost the election to unsettle the candidate who won.
5. Yes.
6. How?
7. How do you define a lobbyist?
8. How? Why do we particularly need disabled MPs?
7. How do you define a lobbyist?
Quite. Isn’t a constituent writing to his MP in fact a lobbyist?
While I’m ranting… don’t get why we’re leaving out Clegg’s former life as a lobbyist, or his wife’s, or Cameron’s, or Lansley’s wife, or Ed Vaizey, or Neil Carmichael, or Lord Clement Jones, Stella Creasy, Rusharana Ali, Lord Bell, Lord Chadlington, Jamie Reed, Steve Barclay, Greg Barker…. and so many more I’m getting bored and haven’t even begun to scratch the surface.
Oh and what about all the lawyers, accountants, Greenpeace campaigners, people who do webchats with Cameron on mumsnet, small businessmen who is a member of the FSB, union members, NUS members, people who reply to Government consultations… lobbyists one and all. Everyone who engages in democracy is a lobbyist.
there is only one alternative now
UKIP
Ask youself the simple question: why does anyone go into politics today?
Noblesse oblige? I think not.
They’re wierd and have an enormous ego. Or their dad did it and they can’t think of another job.
And then there’s the money (not just the salary).
And the perks.
And the lucrative pension.
And in many cases, a seat in the other place for life with plenty of expenses.
Something to bank on. My ego is too big to fail.
How will I know what to think if I have nobody to tell me?
I agree with Nick.
What about my wife Vicky, she works for FTI Consulting and also Vince Cable’s Business Advisory Group, isn’t that a good old fashioned conflict of interest?
My Father-in-law will know.
Bastards.
I can’t get worked up too much about lobbyists, they’re only trying to make living within the current framework available, innit? As a bit of a duck and diver myself I can relate to that. But your main point about the hypocrisy of Nick Clegg and his not so merry band of misfits is a valid one.
It was Chuka’s birthday yesterday. At least Luciana had the good sense not to send him a happy birthday tweet.
OMFG!
Just listened to a few scousers talking about last nights debate.
at no point did they praise the current government for relesing the papers, But they praised thier local Labour MP (despite Labour being in power for 13 of the 22 years since) and the local Mp wants a apology from this government?
NEXT TIME BUY A FUCKIN TICKET!
I think I need some compensation……. !!
I imagine that the people who died did have tickets.
I bet you’ve got a terrible accent by the way, I bet you’d sound just like bob crow to everyone else here.
Re-writing history is a socialist thing, it’s what they do best.
“So two of Clegg’s closest advisers right now are former lobbyists.”……..What a surprise !!
THE Lib Dem leader was accused by Guido Fawkes of trying to cover up his work for a controversial lobby firm, despite calling for more openness in politics.
In 1992-93 he worked for GJW, who helped Colonel Gaddafi resist efforts to send the Lockerbie bomber to the UK for trial – but left it off his CV.
HAT TRICK !
back of the net…..
ooooh Billy, you are a sauce box.
The former enterprise tsar said that while he had been a supporter of Gordon Brown, he had not backed all the Labour government’s choices. “Not everything that went on under Labour I agree with [such as] the benefits system and social apprenticeship schemes, which are really parking people and moving them out of the unemployment numbers,” he said.
Will someone Mace the Squeaker please ?
I was tossing dwarfs before it became fashionable.
Important announcement
Fifteen spin doctors, four Public Relations men and my lord Montacute of Burly will congregate in the Banqueting Hall at 3.00 p.m. sharp this afternoon
To deny these scurrilous rumours that somone has pulled Ken Clarke through a hedge (again)…
I think we should ask Bell Pottinger to form a decent Government
and stop shilly shallying around
Power should appear to lie where power really is I say
Remember when Tom Watson was a bad guy? “The Labour government weakened the rules on lobbying transparency. The ministerial code published in 2007 dropped the requirement that meetings between ministers and lobbyists should be recorded. It also rebuffed MPs’ demands for a register of lobbyists. You’ll be surprised to hear who the villain was: Tom Watson, then a Cabinet Office minister, now a heroic campaigner for corporate accountability. He brushed aside the call for a register with the claim that “we have a pretty good system in the UK”. In fact, we have no system at all: the Commons public administration committee has pointed out that “Lobbying activity in the United Kingdom is subject to no specific external regulation.”"
Either this isn’t the real Billy, or he’s got himself a spell checker.
We in the Country Landowners’ Association like to think of ourselves as the Nobby Lobby. Right now, we are campaigning hard for more wind farms and housebuilding as they both bring us some serious moolah without having to do any work.
in the light of inflation at 5.2%
this c’unt shows he doesn’t care
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/8833301/John-Bercow-ignores-pleas-to-reduce-his-pension.html
he wants his dues – whilst the rest of us pay for them
Time to get rid of Mr Thrush, the little irritating c* nt !
Flash forward to May 2015.
Good morning. Here is the news. The CPS have announced that they will publish their decision on whether Chris Huhne will be prosecuted tomorrow…
what about lobbyists? there must be some or are we to assume that labour is absolutely sque aky cle an.??
what about lobbyists working with labour and who worked with labour whilst they were in government? there must be some or are we to assume that labour is absolutely sque aky cle an.??
And, of course, Clegg’s other half Miriam González Durántez is a partner at a company, DLA Piper, with a significant lobbying arm
and his former press aide works for Miriam at the aforementioned law firm. A coincidence, I am sure
I’ve a tidy pension arrangement. With the wife pretty much on the game, am sitting pretty.
Contributors seem to have forgotten the most important of business axioms:
The working class can kiss my ar*se
I’ve got the lobby job at last.
Or, if you are a mixture of Gordon Bruin and Billy Wossname
I’ve got a jobby lob at last.
Wow – you’re a regular Michael Crick aint your Guido.
Bell Pottinger are members of the PRCA.