Wednesday, April 07, 2021
Curbing the lobbyists
Marina Hyde is especially cutting in this morning's Guardian on David Cameron ghosting us over thge Greensill lobbying scandal. As she points out, the former Prime Minister is still receiving funding from the taxpayer:
David Cameron is still allowed to claim up to £115,000 a year from the public purse, literally to run this office. Surely that’s enough for someone in it to return a call? Seemingly not. Maybe the “office” is just a burner mobile ringing out in a shepherd’s hut. Either way, the firm of which Cameron was a salaried employee – and on whose behalf he lobbied the current government – has now imploded. Furthermore, its administrators have been unable to verify invoices underpinning loans to its top client, steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta, with several companies denying they have ever done business with Gupta. This is becoming quite the shitstorm. And while no one is suggesting the former prime minister is to blame for the shitstorm, he is certainly shitstorm-adjacent.
For the second time in five years, then, Britain is being ghosted by David Cameron. You’ll recall that having tanked his own Brexit referendum, he promptly retreated into the usual lucrative prime ministerial afterlife, while the rest of us had to endure years of the winners – the winners! – arguing about what they’d won. Even so, this latest silence is a giant piss-take. Come on, former prime minister – we thought we had something. We KNOW you’re still watching our Instagram stories. HELLO? Helloooooooooo? Earth to Call-Me-Dave! Call me, Dave.
As the Independent reports, there is once more a strong call for all lobbyists to be included on a government register, thus ending an exemption, for "in-house" employees, that applied to the former prime minister.
As one MP says: 'The former Conservative prime minister’s conduct, and the immense access Greensill was given, illustrates perfectly both the toothlessness of current rules and Tory ministers’ complete disregard for any self-driven integrity when lobbying.'
Given that many of those in government today might wish to keep their options open once they step down, I am not holding my breath for any change in the immediate or distant future.
David Cameron is still allowed to claim up to £115,000 a year from the public purse, literally to run this office. Surely that’s enough for someone in it to return a call? Seemingly not. Maybe the “office” is just a burner mobile ringing out in a shepherd’s hut. Either way, the firm of which Cameron was a salaried employee – and on whose behalf he lobbied the current government – has now imploded. Furthermore, its administrators have been unable to verify invoices underpinning loans to its top client, steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta, with several companies denying they have ever done business with Gupta. This is becoming quite the shitstorm. And while no one is suggesting the former prime minister is to blame for the shitstorm, he is certainly shitstorm-adjacent.
For the second time in five years, then, Britain is being ghosted by David Cameron. You’ll recall that having tanked his own Brexit referendum, he promptly retreated into the usual lucrative prime ministerial afterlife, while the rest of us had to endure years of the winners – the winners! – arguing about what they’d won. Even so, this latest silence is a giant piss-take. Come on, former prime minister – we thought we had something. We KNOW you’re still watching our Instagram stories. HELLO? Helloooooooooo? Earth to Call-Me-Dave! Call me, Dave.
As the Independent reports, there is once more a strong call for all lobbyists to be included on a government register, thus ending an exemption, for "in-house" employees, that applied to the former prime minister.
As one MP says: 'The former Conservative prime minister’s conduct, and the immense access Greensill was given, illustrates perfectly both the toothlessness of current rules and Tory ministers’ complete disregard for any self-driven integrity when lobbying.'
Given that many of those in government today might wish to keep their options open once they step down, I am not holding my breath for any change in the immediate or distant future.
