TWO WAYS TO DEFLECT AN UNWELCOME STORY

*
Fair's fair, Norman Smith was on this morning's Today to talk to John Humphrys about the 'cash for access' scandal involving those senior Labour figures, and Nick Robinson discussed it with Justin Webb.
*
The 7.10 spot today, however, showed the BBC moving firmly to change the focus away from Labour and onto the evils of lobbying itself. JH talked to Prof David Miller of Strathclyde University, one of the founders of the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency. This alliance's definition of 'lobbying' seems to mean 'corporate lobbying'. Here are its members:

Action Aid
Campaign Against Arms Trade
Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom
Corporate Watch
enough'senough.org
Friends of the Earth
Greenpeace
National Union of Journalists
Pesticides Action Network
Platform
SPEAK Network
SpinWatch
Unlock Democracy
War on Want
World Development Movement

Yes, it's that sort of alliance! http://www.lobbyingtransparency.org/content/view/2/7/. Don't these groups lobby too?

*

Prof Miller said, "I see yesterday the Labour Party said it was introducing a manifesto commitment so the question now is 'What would the other parties do?'" - which would have surely pleased any Labour Party people listening!

*

The second predictable strand of the BBC's approach to this story (predicted by Cassandra on the Biased BBC blogsite as early as yesterday morning) was that it would try to say that all the political parties are at it, the Conservatives as much as Labour. Over the many, many months that the BBC pursued the Conservatives over Lord Ashcroft I don't recall hearing many BBC interviewers adopting this 'they're all as bad as each other' line - at least until they had too in the last couple of weeks! Only when Labour get caught in the mire do the likes of Justin Webb start pushing it to the fore.

*

Here are two of Justin's question to Sir George Young:

*

"There is a convenient distinction, isn't there though, that is made between advice that is given and lobbying? One of the things that Geoff Hoon appears to have said is that 'one of the challenges I'm really looking forward too', this is a direct quotation, 'is translating my knowledge and contacts about the international scene into something that frankly makes money'. Well that's what former ministers of both parties have done for decades. I mean Lady Thatcher became advisor to Philip Morris." (If in doubt blame Mrs Thatcher!!)

**

"But just on the wider point though, a lot of people will see it only as a difference of degree. The fact is that a lot of former cabinet ministers of both parties (his emphasis) advise and have advised companies and what they're selling is access."

*

And here's one he put to Nick Robinson:

*

"I do wonder though whether the public really see much of a distinction between this issue of lobbying on specific issues, going to government, saying 'I on behalf of a company want you to do this, that and the other' and the sort of general advice that, as I was suggesting to Sir George Young, cabinet ministers and former cabinet ministers have done for decades."

*

Justin Webb's interview with Sir George Young (Conservative) resulted in an interruption coefficient of 1.2. His interview with Labour's Kevin Brennan on the same subject resulted merely in an I.C. of 0.4. That's Justin Webb for you!

*

*

The Today programme (and its website) was keen to stress throughout that the calls for an investigation into Stephen Byers were coming from the Conservative Party. This neglects the fact that the Lib Dems are also making those calls and risks falsely implanting in the public's mind the idea that this whole story is turning into a party-political point-scoring exercise by the Tories. Perish the thought that anyone at the BBC would think of trying to imply that!!

*

*

UPDATE: The World at One, in fairness to the BBC, is leading with the Stephen Byers story and digging into his discussions with Lord Adonis. Martha Kearney interviewed a questioning Norman Baker of the Lib Dems (I.C. of 0), the BBC's favourite transport expert Christian Wolmar, who glossed things favourably for Lord Adonis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Wolmar), and Labour loyalist Tony 'Father of Ben' Wright MP (I.C. of 0), who will doubtless find his knighthood in the post soon after the general election and who kept trying to implicate the Conservatives.