Reviews : The Commercial Lobbyists, Ed. Grant Jordan, (AUP 1991)
| Author | Kevin Moloney |
| DOI | 10.1177/095207679100600306 |
| Published date | 01 December 1991 |
| Date | 01 December 1991 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
but such a public service ethic is unlikely to continue strong and healthy without
care and attention. Inland Revenue staff are clearly not against performance pay
in principle, but there are serious dangers to the welfare of the public services if
such policies are implemented with too much haste and with insensitive or ill
thought-out procedures. Now that MPs’ salaries are linked to civil service pay
scales, is there any plan to introduce performance pay for them, also? If so, how
will it be implemented?
Richard A. Chapman
University of Durham
The Commercial Lobbyists, Ed. Grant Jordan, (AUP 1991)
The front cover illustration for The Commercial Lobbyists shows a huddle of
rather worn, raffish middle-aged men talking over drinks and a cigar. One is
talking behind his hand and carrying a trench raincoat. Grant Jordan tells us in his
introduction (p.34) to these ’professional persuaders’ that Pamella Bordes
’wanted a career in public relations or parliamentary lobbying’ and had an entry
pass to the Commons. Presumably she did not succeed because she lacked the
right qualifications. Earlier Jordan quotes an American lobbyist:
’My mother has never introduced me to her friends as
’My son, the lobbyist’ ’.
For certain the subjects of this study will not like the imagery for it picks up
on the populist perception that lobbying generally ends up in sectional influence
buying against the public interest. Has the illustrator done the general public (and
Westminster and Whitehall) a service with an early political health warning? Or
has she unfairly done down a group ~of people who talk about themselves as
’political barristers’.
The Commercial Lobbyists is welcome because it is the first book length
attempt to build up a picture of this group in the UK and also to attempt an
assessment of its influence on UK central government decision making. The
American contributor calls the group contract or ’for hire’ lobbyists: they represent
for a fee an outside group to government...
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