Welcome to Boris Johnson's government of all the lobbyists
The prime minister’s new team has strong links to leading corporate lobbyists – they are representing the ultra-rich who want to shape Brexit.
By Adam Ramsay
Open Democracy UK
27 July 2019
The lobbyists are taking control. The firms which ensure that the rich and powerful have more of a say in our politics than the typical British citizen are now at the heart of the cabinet. Do the representatives of these firms leave their personal interests at the door as they become ministers and senior advisers? That ideal is looking ever more laughable.
...Now that Johnson has appointed his cabinet, we can see it’s not just the prime minister who has close connections to those who lobby for the rich and powerful: from the new home secretary to the secretary of state for housing, this is now a government of all the lobbyists. People who used to work for some of the most significant firms that sell our democracy to the highest bidder now have their hands on the steering wheel of state.
David Cameron once said that lobbyists would produce the next big scandal. With the appointment of Dominic Cummings – the director of the Vote Leave campaign – as a senior adviser to the prime minister, and Johnson’s decision not to use cabinet appointments to appease his opponents in the party, as you’d expect from a prime minister with such a small majority, and with his face being smeared all over Facebook, it looks increasingly likely that Johnson is contemplating a general election. If he holds one, it looks like his team, with their lobbying links, will have access to greater piles of cash than any election we have seen in recent times.
The last time Cummings and Johnson ran a campaign together – Vote Leave – that outfit broke the laws of our democracy and swallowed the relatively tiny fines for doing so.
Much more here
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/welcome-to-boris-johnsons-government-of-all-the-lobbyists/