Report to the People
The Truth about Lobbying
When you hear the word "lobbyist" what comes into your mind?
A slick-talking, sharp-suited spiv, offering politicians brown envelopes in car parks? Or a glittery reception where businessmen are offered access to Cabinet Ministers in return for vast sums of cash?
The reality is, I’m afraid, far less intriguing.
In fact, the openness and accessibility of the Scottish Parliament largely dispenses with the need for professional lobbyists. Most lobbying comes directly from real people with real problems. And it is not so much a question of persuading or influencing MSPs, as informing them.
For example, people with personal experience of, or particular expertise in, an issue regularly organise "briefing sessions", to explain the situation from their point of view.
One such meeting I recently attended was hosted by the Scottish Huntingdon’s Association.
Lead by Greenock born Chief Executive, Patricia McLaughlin, the group met with MSPs to promote understanding of this terrible genetic condition. It attacks, amongst other things, motor and cognitive functions, leaving sufferers with no control over their limbs. Victims and their families told harrowing stories of how ignorance of the condition led to one patient being punished by hospital staff for not sitting still and another dying in a psychiatric hospital because she had been misdiagnosed.
If the goal was to make us sit up and take notice, they succeeded. In a room of supposedly hard-nosed politicians, there was not a single dry eye.
Another way to promote issues in Parliament is through Cross Party Groups. Over a year ago in this column I mentioned that a Cross Party Group on Deafness was being established.
Then the group was, as the Huntingdon’s Association is now, simply trying to raise awareness of the issues. Now, as its first AGM approaches, it is achieving real results.
To pick a few examples, Education Minister, Jack McConnell recently confirmed to us that deaf young people will have the chance to shape policies to improve education for deaf children. The National Deaf Children’s Society has been awarded £177,000 to improve training and support for those educating deaf children. And, last Wednesday, to mark the launch of Deaf Awareness Week, the group arranged for some deaf children to come to the Main Chamber to teach us how to spell our names in sign language.
At a time when the whole issue of lobbying is being examined by the Parliament’s Standards Committee, it is ironic to reflect that in our open, accessible structure, they are becoming marginalised by genuine people telling their own story.
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