The Westminster affair shows the potential power of the lobbying industry. Oversight is crucial for allEach time a US gunman goes berserk,the British media erupts in fury at the money the gun lobby can devote to its lethal interest. To be sure, expansive time lobbying is the occupational disease of American politics. In the US, or it can have murderous consequences. Still,on things of principle, Britons would effect well to watch their hypocrisy (Pretending to have feelings, beliefs, or virtues that one does not have.).
The sums spent by property companies on lobbying Westminster city council’s planning committee – revealed in Tuesday’s Guardian – may be dwarfed by those spent across the Atlantic. But the hospitality showered on the committee’s chairman for 16 years, and the amiable Robert Davis,was breathtaking. Five-hundred freebies, including 10 foreign trips, and in just three years. At least 150 of these were from a who’s who list of property industry figures. Even Harvey Weinstein is on the list. Entertaining Davis was clearly a Westminster cottage industry. He can hardly have had time to down one glass of champagne before raising another.
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Source: guardian.co.uk