‘Have we built a majority?’: Lobbyists often overlook this important question. Early in their careers, politicians learn to establish their positions according to…Read more…
Have We Built a Majority?
January 14th, 2011How the Environment Movement is Losing in the War of Public Opinion
December 3rd, 2010Look as hard as you like, but you will not find any country implementing, or even proposing effective action against climate change. While scientists continue publishing newer and firmer evidence of climate change, no government seems willing to invest the resources required to start combating it. Politicians who are courageous enough to promise climate initiatives either rapidly change their minds, or are quickly voted out. No wonder that the public is not only losing faith in the possibility of action, but are starting to question the very existence of climate change.
If climate change is really as serious as scientists and activists would like us to believe, then surely something would have been done by now, right? Wrong.
The environment movement is simply losing the war of the public opinion on climate change. Read more.
Risky Business
October 1st, 2010One of the issues that the European Union institutions and the environmental pressure groups have spent many thousands of hours arguing over is risk. The long-running campaign against “gender bender chemicals”, the huge furore across Europe concerning genetically modified food, trans fats, alcohol, salt, the list grows ever longer.Read more…
“Slippery Slope” or “Weakest Link”: Political Triage
September 17th, 2010Where a product or position is becoming the focus of public outrage, is it wiser to defend it vigorously or drop it speedily? Read more…
The Anger Business: A Major Market Expansion for Pressure Groups
September 3rd, 2010A common feature of the coverage of the “credit crunch” has been the reporting of “ordinary people’s anger”. At the moment, this anger is largely something which politicians are dodging but not, so far, meaningfully directing. There have been outbreaks of “banker rage” which have given some indication of the extent to which politicians will wish to be on the winning side of popular opinion. However, less commented on has been…Read more…
Defending the Weakest Link: the Alcohol Industry
August 20th, 2010The alcohol production industry across Europe has a problem. With each passing year its “license to operate” is being whittled away as the industry alienates some of the most important groups in society. Read more…
The Importance of Story-telling when Lobbying
August 2nd, 2010When companies lobby in Brussels, it is remarkable the extent to which they have become focussed on the backbone of their communication being ‘key messages’ and ‘proof points’, without developing an underlying narrative or story. Read more…
Simon Bryceson’s Speech at the European Commission
July 22nd, 2010HLC’s Chairman, Simon Bryceson, spoke to the European Commission interns on the 50th Anniversary of the stagiare programme. Speaking on the theme “The Future of Europe, Simon offered his thoughts on some of the challenges that the EU is facing, which lie at the nexus between the European institutions, national governments, businesses, and international pressure groups. Watch his speech here.
Pharma Industry Advocacy – How Welcome is “Innovation” to Government?
July 1st, 2010In the battle to fight for pieces of the pie as pharmaceutical spending is likely to decrease, the industry often argues to government that such a decrease will harm innovation…Read more…
Life after Copenhagen II: the Reality Slowly Dawns (Everywhere except the Environment Movement)
June 16th, 2010In our previous essay, Life after Copenhagen, we laid out the reasons we believed that Copenhagen would be a failure. On this occasion, it gives us at HLC no great pleasure to say “we told you so”. It is striking how shocked many people were by the spectacular nature of that failure. Certainly, we would agree that the usual attempts to describe any diplomatic fiasco as a major success have proved even more fruitless than usual. Read More…
