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Summary AQA Politics - UK Pressure Groups
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These essay plans include the main points and examples needed to answer nearly every question on UK Pressure Groups. Best supplemented with case study booklet.
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Influences on government other than pressure groups1. Lobbyists
Lobbyists are people/firms who work on behalf of corporations and interest groups
to promote their issues to the government in power
- This directly raises problems with politicians so that they can raise it government,
influencing its work as once they are made aware electorate want it, they do not
want to lose the electorate's support if they do not act upon it
The lobbying firm Morgan Roberts worked with the charity Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust
between 2006 and 2008 when they campaigned for the introduction of a UK wide
HPV vaccine programme for girls, which was adopted in 2008
However, lobbying MPs in this way to do political favours for firms lends itself to
sleaze and corruption, a severe consequence which can greatly impact governments
e.g Cab for Hire scandal 2010 saw an undercover operation by the Sunday Times and
Channel 4s Dispatches programme allege that three former Labour cabinet minister
were willing to help represent people in exchange for cash. For example, Stephen
Byers the former transport secretary said he was like “a cab for hire” who would
work for up to £5,000 a day
2. The media
The media control public opinion, and so they directly affect the attitudes of the
public and therefore influence the government
- By doing this, they can affect public backlash from certain policy decisions and even
cause political U-turns
e.g 2021 Owen Paterson was a Tory MP for North Shropshire, however it was
revealed that he had accepted over £100,000 from companies like Randox,
frequently breaking lobbying rules. The Parliamentary commissioner for standards
advised Paterson be suspended, however the government initially tried to modify
the Parliamentary standards system to save him. The media ran headlines like “Tory
MPs threaten mutiny to stop sleaze watchdog kicking out Paterson”. This made it
seem like the government supported sleaze to protect their own, causing immense
backlash and a government U-turn.
However, this fails to consider that newspapers often take sides, and so some will
always turn it against the party they don’t support
e.g 1997 The Sun was staunchly pro-Labour, explaining to its voters that IT MUST BE
YOU (Blair) and that BRITAIN DESERVES BETTER, BRITAIN DESERVES BLAIR. This
marked a significant turn from 1992 when previous titles like “If Kinnock wins today,
will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights”, making him seem
even better, as he must be a good candidate to warrant this
3. Corporations
Corporations play a significant role in the influence of government and parliament as
they often represent very wealthy companies which provide for the economy, while
providing many jobs
,- As a result, its very important that these corporations are supported so that they
continue to play a crucial role in the economy and don’t leave and move to another
country. Due to their money, corporations often ensure this is the case themselves.
e.g The company Harrods was revealed to have hired a lobbyist who paid two Tory
MPs to ask Parliamentary questions and perform other political acts to influence the
government on behalf of its owner in 1994. This was named the “Cash for questions”
scandal and is just one of the ways companies influence government.
However, this fails to consider that the biggest corporations are not always
represented, despite the fact they are a frequent consideration
e.g March 2020 budget saw the government announce that it was going to introduce
a 2% digital sales tax on the UK revenues of search engines, social media services and
online marketplaces. This saw heavy opposition from large companies like Google
and Amazon, however the government went ahead regardless.
, Insider and outsider groups – advantages and disadvantages
NOTE – This is insider group advantages and disadvantages, but you literally cannot
get asked on both insider and outsider advantages and disadvantages. So, Insider
advantage = outsider disadvantage (as don’t have), and vise versa
Advantages:
1. Have political significance
Core pressure groups especially are those pressure groups with strong, two-way
communications with policy makers over a broad range of issues
- This allows them to easily directly lobby government, and even lobby informally
before legislation is drawn up, unlike outsider groups which must protest etc to get
their voice heard
e.g Trade Unions have an affiliation with Labour as they are traditionally the party of
the working man, and so have close communication when they’re in government. This
would’ve been the case if Corbyn was prime minister, as when speaking to the
Scottish Trade Union Congress, he called them Labour's "family" in 2017 and said
that he would “never, ever apologise for the closeness of our relationship with Trade
Unions”.
This is significant as this can see insider groups have significant impact on legislation
- As pressure groups are typically more like the people, this is a huge positive
e.g MPs earn more than 90% of the nation, and 2/3 of Cameron’s cabinet were
millionaires, meaning it’s hard to argue they’re not detached from the average
person. Hence, the Unite teachers Union group the voice of individual teachers into
one voice to ensure their voice is heard by government so they can effectively make
law, which is important considering the average wage of teachers is £32,000
2. Often larger PGs
As insider groups have more direct access to government, it's more likely that they
will have more members, as people are more likely to support a group that gets things
done, and if they are in contact with government, they’re more official
- Hence, having more membership allows the pressure group to have more influence
and be more successful, one reason being protests are more impactful
In 2003 the Countryside Alliance put the views of rural communities on the map
when they organised 300,000 protestors to gather in London to protest the ban on
hunting. This made the views of rural communities clear to Blair when it may have
not otherwise been. If there were only 1,000 members there it would have been
much less impactful and may have gone unnoticed
The implications of having more members is a larger budget, as they have more
sources of income
- This can give them an edge in many areas
Campaign for High Speed Rail hired Westbourne communications, who were able to
shift the debate regarding HS2 to the economic positives of its construction, away
from its environmental impact. This gave them a larger say and therefore they
became more successful as they were able to get more people onboard. HS2 is being
constructed.
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