Test test
Sorry, just testing.
Queen’s Gate, London, England
Murdoch wants people to pay for this shit?
Yesterday, I got on the train in the morning. I was about to pull my laptop out and read the Scala documentation or get distracted by the Internet when I found that some helpful passenger had left me a copy of The Times and Metro. I don’t read Metro (or London Lite or thelondonpaper or other freepaper dreck), so I started reading The Times. I generally read The Guardian. As News International is planning to erect a paywall around it’s online properties, I thought it might be interesting to see if I’m going to be missing anything.
Of course not. What dreck. I can’t find this article online, but on pages 8 and 9 of yesterday’s Times has an article titled “Movers and shakers who are working to become your MP”. I can find this article which has the same content but a different headline (WTF?). The print version is labelled “News - Lobbying” at the top of the page. It discusses the fact that quite a number of possibly Tory candidates in the next election are from the private sector - and there is a blurring of the fine line between business and politics
. This is interesting, of course, but not exactly surprising: fresh blood from elsewhere is probably not a bad thing following the scandal we’ve seen with expenses.
What makes the article rahter worrying is that it actually contains “handy hints” on how to lobby your MP. I have listed them below with the heading they appear under:
Sound like you care
- Introduce your MP to specialists, offer to draft speeches, present relevant research papers - give them a comprehensive service, flatter them, and eventually you will win their ear.
Pick your battles
- Blanket e-mails and cold-calling won’t work. Find out what an MP has pledged to do and what their concerns are. Tailor your words to their interests and use connections to get introductions
Flattery works
- Log on to Twitter, look at Facebook, read their blogs. When you talk to an MP, quote them, congratulate them, demonstrate your interest: make them feel special
The next leaders
- Keep an eye on the Conservative Research Department. These guys will almost certainly end up in the Downing Street policy unit. Establishing strong links now could pay dividends later
Time it right
- A raft of impressionable MPs will arrive at the next election. Either get in early and befriend the candidate while they are still on the campaign trail or wait until they are settled in
Be cool
- If you send every press release and policy document, you run the risk of becoming “just another lobbyist” and your ideas will end up in the bin. Stay in touch - but only when it matters
I find this all rather creepy and anti-democratic. Telling people how to lobby as a double-page spread in The Times? How is this news? Also, if The Guardian did this, but with tips for environmental activists and trade unionists on how to lobby the Labour Party or the LibDems, they’d be accused of something awful. Not what I expect from a news outlet.
It reads like a horrible parody of “How to win friends and influence people” - also, shouldn’t you actually care rather than just soudning like you care.
Imperial College Road, London, England
