Lobbying
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 Lobbying  (Activity, Bribery?)     | |
|---|---|
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| Interest of | • Powerbase • Signal Group • Spinwatch |
| Lobbying is to bribery as tax avoidance is to tax evasion. | |
Lobbying is the activity of individual lobbyists and lobbying firms. In 2023, Big Pharma spent more on lobbying than any other business sector.[1]
A 2015 Guardian article on the topic concluded by quoting Mansur Gidfar: "How can we expect politicians who routinely receive campaign money, lucrative job offers, and lavish gifts from special interests to make impartial decisions that directly affect those same special interests? As long as this kind of transparently corrupt behavior remains legal, we won’t have a government that truly represents the people."[2]
Legal status
Registration
In US, lobbying is supposed to be registered. Some estimate the registered lobbying to be only the top of the iceberg:
Examples
| Page name | Description |
|---|---|
| BAE Systems/Lobbying | |
| Philanthropy | Now used regularly by PR agencies to white/green wash unsavoury activity and improve the profile of wealthy donors |
Related Quotation
| Page | Quote | Author | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Anti-corruption" | “In Slovakia in the 1990s I used UK companies wanting to do business to engage with local businesses. We set up the Klub 500 of companies with more than 500 employees. We got UK MPs via the NATO Parliamentary Assembly to teach them how business relates to, and can fund and lobby, political parties legitimately in a democracy, instead of their then model of cash in brown envelopes.” | Chris Donnelly | 24 May 2018 |
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