Such Transparency, You'd Hardly Know it was There

A consultation document has been published, in which the British lobbying industry specifies the maximum level of scrutiny it is prepared to put up with, and trusts Daveybloke's Cuddly Coalition to water things down according to taste. Political corruption being one of our few growth industries, the proposals take unerring aim at think-tanks and charities, and also at trade unions, whose patronage of the Labour party was one of our most shameful national secrets until the Upper (formerly Lower) Miliband and his Balls declared yet again for the Conservatives last week. However, in order to spare the blushes of people like the former defence secretary, Adam Werritty, the Government's idea is to create "a register of activity, not a complete regulator for the industry", on the standard assumption that criminal activity is perfectly fine provided only that it isn't all furtive and proletarian. Hence, there will be no statutory code of conduct and no obligation for ministers to declare meetings with chums of theirs who just happen to be lobbyists and with whom they just happened to be discussing the weather or the evils of materialism or something.