Democracy in 2008

In December the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, (she whose relatives and friends support her by letters to the press written under assumed names), announced that she was scrapping plans to make police more accountable to their local community. The actual proposals were very weak, at least in the eyes of those who want full accountability.

Among those who made representations to her were the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Association of Police Authorities. (The latter have the slogan "Giving people a say in policing!) This was predictable, however they dressed it up, politically they had more to gain from toadying up to powerful politicians and much to lose if they had to answer to citizens who are not impressed by recent police performance. (More surprising was opposition from the Local Government Association, whose website contains the objective "to push decision-making to the lowest possible level."

Douglas Carswell, MP, who had introduced a Ten Minute Rule Bill on directly elected Justice Commissioners or Sheriffs, afterwards received a call from the lobbyist organisation Connect Public Affairs about his attempts. The Lobbyist lists among its clients the ACPO and the APA.

In December, and again in January, he raised on his blog the question of publicly funded bodies spending money on lobbying government. Specifically, he asked, did he police organisations spend money with the lobbyists to influence public policy, and if so whether this was proper. At the very least, he suggested, we should be told.

The main body representing lobbyists, the Association of Professional Consultants, is very concerned at the Tories proposing that government agencies be barred from hiring lobbyists. Over a five year period the Conservatives had identified at least 71 separate contracts between state-funded agencies and lobbying firms, and involving £9.7 million. If, when elected, the Conservatives do this they would be following the U.S. government with its Byrd Amendment of 1989 which banned U.U. government agencies from hiring lobbyists.