Does lobbying still work?

For the past 20 years, in one professional role or another, it has been part of my job to create relationships with politicians and to seek to influence the development of policy. It's been an education, in many ways - always changing, often surprising. But the last 4 years have felt different in a much more fundamental way than I have seen before. Which leads me to ask myself "does lobbying still work"?

I'll start with some principles. 

The first is that we have one of the most open and accessible systems of Government that I have seen in more than 20 years of travelling and taking an interest worldwide. Whether in local or central Government, it is incredibly simple to find out who your elected representatives are, to reach out to them and to get a sensible answer (even if not always the one you want!). 

We don't celebrate this enough - in democratic terms, the reality of our Parliament is that it is a phenomenally open and accountable institution. Process-heavy and arcane, certainly. Misogynist and insufficiently inclusive, possibly. But I'd argue its about as accessible as it is possible for a system of national, regional and local administration to be. 

We also don't celebrate politicians or civil servants nearly enough. The press has a tricky habit of turning highly intelligent, very civic-minded people into pantomime villains. Unfortunately, the public then has an even trickier habit of believing them. I've met half of the grand villains of Parliament and while I might fundamentally disagree with them about the economics of the free market and the welfare state, I have yet to meet one that is an actual sociopath. Well, maybe one.

Similarly, civil servants. Today's civil service, like in the days of Yes Minister, is stocked with whip-smart young people trying to make the world better. They are doing it in a totally bizarre environment which operates according to rules that make astonishingly little sense to the dispassionate observer, but nevertheless the vast majority of civil servants are absolutely driven by a belief in the ability of Government to effect positive change.

Not only this, but our political system is among the least corrupt and most transparent in the world. Specifically, we come 14th (out of 175) in Transparency International's world ranking of corrupt nations. While issues like the abuse of rules on political advertising, the expenses scandal and - the grand-daddy of them all, Brexit - have all served to undermine trust in politicians, it remains the case that our political system is pretty tightly-regulated and has reasonable (if arcane, see above) systems for oversight, probity and accountability.

I hate to spoil everyone's fun on twitter, but if you step back and take a proportionate view on all of this, we have a pretty good political system rammed to the rafters with pretty good people. It may not always produce great outcomes (indeed, it often doesn't, of which more later...) but then, nothing does. And so, it seems to follow, if you are working in an organisation that thinks it has part of the answer to achieving positive social change, then lobbying is going to be a pretty solid part of your work.

What is 'lobbying'?

So what is 'lobbying'. I believe it is the process by which you seek to nudge (or more often, work with others who are trying to nudge) the political process towards delivering a specific outcome. Any Parliament essentially has three levers it can pull:

1. Money
2. Laws
3. Influence

Not only this, but there tend to be specific times when these levers can be pulled. It is easier, for example, for a new majority Government to use its mandate to effect a raft of legislative change than it is for a late-stage minority Government. It is easier to enact legislation that relates to a Manifesto commitment than it is to drive a policy programme into law that hasn't been put to a popular vote.

Spending limits are strictly set and controlled by Treasury, meaning that discretionary spending by Departments or devolved Administrations outside a Spending Review is actually fairly limited. Within this, systems of public procurement are fairly well-engineered to produce accountable projects, but in a way which limits the ability of politicians or civil servants to spot a problem and respond to it in an agile way.

Compounding all of this is the Government's approach to strategic communications. Parliament, comprising as it does the warring states of Government and Opposition (and sometimes fragile Coalition, although we're not all that keen on those...) is a constant battle between those who have won power and those who want to steal it from them. Like a brace of Prom kings and queens, this tends to turn our national politics into a kind of sickening popularity contest. Which means that which policies are translated into law and money is as much to do with the 'optics' as it is to do with the justness of your cause.

So into the maw of this great self-serving, policy-making machine, which runs entirely according to a rhythm of its own making and which is entirely capable of soaking up every shred of energy you give it and then discarding you without the faintest trace of having made a difference, you throw the hopes and dreams of whichever community you represent.

Sometimes, your lobbying goal is straightforward. Public library funding in most of the UK has been cut by around ￡243m a year in real terms since 2010. You can't run a world-class library service - which is all librarians want to do - on what's left so we have to lobby to restore this lost funding. Simple, you would think - build a cross-Party coalition of support (small 'c' coalition, so that's fine...), evidence the justness of your cause and someone, somewhere will do the right thing and decide in your favour.

Except what I have described there bears literally no relation to the realities of trying to influence any kind of political process. For a start, Parliament, indeed Parties, are not like a company. MP's are not employees of an organisation (after 4 years of research, I am still not 100% sure who holds the contract of employment with an MP).

They are much more like some kind of political Ronin - wandering the landscape, often with one or two people in tow whose jobs or professional affiliations you will never, ever, fully understand - trying to achieve the near-impossible task of acquiring (and keeping) an office, talking meaningfully to people about bins and parking, keeping the local party activists onside, raising money, working out which debates they have to be at, getting Whatsapp messages from Whips telling them what to do, avoiding giving ammunition to eternally-vigilant journalists and trying to make something - anything, really - happen that they can take credit for. God help them if they have kids.

It's a bit different with the Lords, of course, but not as different as you might think.

For the most part, politicians are (a) passionate, (b) clever and (c) stressed. They care about what they care about and if you happen to represent something they care about, they will take an interest in you. We currently have around 80 'friendly' Parliamentarians who care about libraries. They care about them for a vast array of reasons, from literacy to poverty, to visiting them with Nanny when still in short trousers. But that doesn't matter. What matters is that you forge a simple human connection based on the fact that you both care about a thing.

It is interesting, by the way, that since the introduction of the 'Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act' in 2014, which sought to limit the effectiveness of paid lobbyists, there's a much more human atmosphere in Parliament - people talking to people about things that matter. Although that doesn't stop very large vested interests retaining squads of sharp-elbowed Graduates to lobby on their behalf. It just makes it slightly less effective.

If you can express the thing a Politician cares about as a cause, they may want to help you with it. This help can run an entire spectrum from asking a question in the House or submitting an early day motion right up to leading a campaign or garnering support for the introduction of a Bill or Amendment. In the case of libraries, this is all a bit tricky. Someone might absolutely, totally agree with you that as a nation we need to stop under-funding libraries, but their next question will be which budget or bit of legislation needs to change in order to make it happen.

Because of the deep structural illogic of the political mandate for libraries (DCMS have the mandate, MCHLG have the money - like the submissive husband to an economically domineering wife) the honest answer is 'ring fence a budget for Councils to spend on libraries'. Except in an age of devolution you might as well ask a national politician to pass through the eye of a needle as use their influence to constrain the financial independence of Councils who are still reeling from the fresh outrage of losing 40% of their block grant.

The next best thing - restoring investment in local Councils - sounds like a great idea, except that the adult social care crisis is now so acute that the Government to could throw an additional ￡1bn a year at Councils and it wouldn't touch the sides, let alone providing succour to our cash-starved library services.

So in this environment, where the political and economic dice are stacked against the outcome we want, I return to the original question - is there any point in lobbying?

And startlingly, the answer is a resounding 'yes'. If I were American, I might even go as far as a 'hell yes'. Lobbying is still the most effective way of securing the broad political, economic and legislative outcomes your organisation is seeking to achieve. It has just become a very, very different game these days.

In place of the big plans and strategies, what matters now is two things - (i) relationships and (ii) places.

After the febrile atmosphere of brexit and the frankly disgraceful interface between political life and social media (on both sides), ultimately the individual politician, MP or Peer matters far more than which Party they belong to. Because they operate like Ronin, a determined individual who shares your values and beliefs will forge relationships, open doors, be opportunistic on your behalf and generally agitate in your community's best interests. Eventually, Party politics will re-assert. At some point in the dim and distant future actual proper policymaking might re-assert. But what will sustain us in the meantime is good people on our side who work in Parliament (or one of the devolved Administrations).

The other thing that matters - almost more than Party, policy or popularity, is place. Britain is 15 years into a process of devolution that has been about as graceful as a confused hippo doing parkour, one of the results of which is that places are far more important than they used to be. What this means in practice is that even if you are pursuing a national agenda, you need to refract it through the place an MP, MSP or other representative represents. If talking to a firebrand socialist from Middlesborough, don't just talk about libraries, talk about the astonishing work that Middlesbrough Libraries are doing to lift young people in Middlesborough out of poverty through literacy and digital skills. If it's a Tory grandee from South West London, talk about the services in their area and the challenges they face.

So is it worth lobbying? Yes, of course, But much like visiting Vegas, it's important to go in these days with your eyes open and a clear idea of how much you can afford to lose (time/money/energy). Be clear about your goals and objectives, not just in terms of what you want, but in terms of how they fit into the broader political landscape and the policy process. Understand what an elected representative can and cannot do, which levers they can pull and what the cost is to them of doing so. Try and adjust your approach to the political reality of the time and be prepared for a marathon to turn suddenly into a sprint (and vice-versa).

Our politics isn't broken. It certainly isn't perfect either. But it is open to good people wanting to influence it for the better! I hope this article has been of some interest, based on my experiences of the last 20 years or so, but I would love to hear yours in the comments!