12 September 2007

So the PR industry is gearing up for a scrap. Those masters of the dark arts will be compiling a whole host of tricks to try to hoodwink the UK Parliament’s Public Administration Committee that is currently looking into the lobbying industry.

Outsiders argue that the inquiry, which is the first Parliamentary investigation on lobbying since 1991, is long overdue. Since then, lobbying has been at the centre of sleaze and too many political scandals to mention.

But the fight back has begun. Key PR insiders are warning about how the industry needs to pull together to “salvage our reputation”. Writing in PR Week , Peter Bingle from Bell Pottinger, says that “there is no point rehearsing in public the view that we welcome the inquiry. We don’t. I have yet to meet a member of the industry who does.”

The industry does not want the Committee’s investigation, it doesn’t like it and will fight tooth and nail to fight further regulation of lobbyists. Anyone interested in submitting written evidence to the MP’s has until the 21^st September to do so. I bet those PR executives are working overtime to get their submissions in. The spell-books are out.