Lobbying and cronyism in Britain

Fat cats and other felines unlike in the US and India

Photo by Oliver Hale on Unsplash

Britain’s so-called lobbying and cronyism row is anything but. It’s about fat cats, lean mean hunters, entitled purebreds, scruffy strays, trainable tabbies, rebellious rescues — in other words, all sorts of felines padding through the corridors of power.

Lobbying and cronyism is a feature, not a bug of British politics. The language being used is disingenuous. This is not like America. It’s America without any rules. This is not like Indian backhanders; it's fronthanders in plain sight – over a "private drink" at the club.

Former prime minister David Cameron is currently in the spotlight for his attempts to lobby his former Conservative Party colleagues on behalf of failed payment services company Greensill Capital. He is not the first and may not be the last.

There have been many similar scandals, not least “cash for questions” asked in parliament by Conservative MPs and Tony Blair’s Labour government’s exemption of Formula One from the ban on tobacco ad…