I winced a bit, though I was not especially shocked, at the Independent's exposé of Bell Pottinger's desperate pitch for business with Uzbekistan. The most telling line is actually the quotation in the second last paragraph:

A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister said: "It is simply not true that Bell Pottinger or indeed any other lobbying company has any influence on government policy."

Oh yeah?

One point that jumps out at me was the fact that there is no serious system of registration of lobbyists in the UK. There is an industry run voluntary register, which appears almost completely useless. But there appear to be no moves towards setting up anything with teeth.

The USA, for all its faults in regulating the lobbying efforts of domestic actors, has a pretty rigid system of monitoring those who represent foreign interests. The Department of Justice has a searchable database so that you can see who is representing your favourite dictatorship; there are serious penalties for non-compliance and a stipulation that "informational materials (formerly propaganda) be labeled with a conspicuous statement that the information is disseminated by the agents on behalf of the foreign principal. The agent must provide copies of such materials to the Attorney General." However, the FARA law was passed in 1938 and hasn't really kept pace with the times.

In Brussels, the EU has just recently introduced a new Transparency Register combined with a code of conduct, covering all lobbyists and interest groups working on EU policy, not just those of us who are working for the furriners. (My entry is here.) You will note that they have gone for as broad an approach as possible, with registrants including not only lobbying firms but NGOs like my own employers, and academic institutions and thinktanks. There is also no requirement to record more than the bare bones of activity, or more than headline figures about funding. There is no penalty for not signing up, but there is a tangible benefit from doing so, which is that you can't get an access badge for the European Parliament without being on the register – and that is a pretty strong incentive to comply.

The British Conservative MEPs published a "full list" of their contacts with lobbyists in the second half of 2010. (If, hypothetically, one had personal knowledge of a meeting or meetings that had taken place between Conservative MEPs and lobbyists during that time period which mysteriously failed to make that list, what action might one take? Just asking.) I note that this initiative has not been repeated since, probably in part because of the interesting revelation that Sir Robert Atkins and Dan Hannan met with nobody at all; presumably they get all the information they need just by looking into their own hearts, like De Valera with the Irish people. I don't think there is any harm, though, in asking elected representatives to do this, and I am a bit surprised that it doesn't feature more strongly in the various calls for transparency that we get.

Incidentally, Tim Collins, the Bell Pottinger exec exposed by the Independent, is well known to be a Doctor Who fan. I bet he woke up this morning wishing he could dematerialise.