This is not going to be a long post as I have written quite a few posts previously about the effects of lobbyist/special interest groups on our democracy here. This latest episode of an ever ending story is just a tip of the iceberg and only demonstrates the level at which lobbyist/special interest have taken full control of our political eco system – all pointing to the level of corruption and foreign influence that it at the heart of British politics. It has become more of a trend (open secret) where politicians become members/active supporters to one lobby group or other. This clearly represents a dereliction of duty and requires that politicians engaged in such activity be held accountable under the law. We need to eliminate any form of influence on our policy making structures and I can only urge all political parties to unite in fighting this growing trend and help develop effective policy/regulations to fight this cancer as part of a larger effort to include taking money out of politics. Why? Well, because we simply need to ensure that British politics is squarely focused on British interest NOT through intent but rather through transparency & a clear set of regulations.
More importantly this also points to the importance of us knowing what our political candidates stand for – irrespective of political party – before electing them to serve us and if they do divert from their duty we should be knocking on their doors because Democracy only begins where elections ends.
Consider this; Fear of Russian meddling in internal policy through what is termed Active Measures is due to it being an unofficial approach to foreign influence on policy while lobbying is perfectly fine because this is more of the official/normalised approach of interference (foreign or otherwise); now how ridiculous is that? Policy then becomes a game of the rich/connected – with a solid lucrative/legal industry behind it – rather than being driven on merits and democratic governance. Foreign interference also tends to import/internalise foreign conflicts into our socio-political space which in turn affects our ability at resolving such conflicts while at the same time contributes to developing internal divisions based on such conflicts – so it’s a no-win proposition all together.
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