The Lobbying Bill received Royal Assent in early February after the House of Commons voted for it to pass into Law. This law has been highly criticised for its lack of due process and yesterday further evidence for this emerged as a website based joint consultation between the charity commission and electoral commission ended asking charities how they feel this legislation will affect them. The web based consultation has been running in parallel to a small series of meetings that have taken place between the two Government quangos and charities that were invited to the meetings. This consultation is apparently needed to help the commissions draw up guidance for charities so that they will know how the law will affect them. The Government had instructed them to do this as part of the process of drawing up this very questionable legislation. The reason that the guidance is needed is that the Act is very complex, modifying and amending various existing pieces of legislation. Even the Prime Minister in his public pronouncements has got muddled up over how it will operate. So the Government had passed a law, and asked two of its agencies to draw up guidance for the charities that will be affected, and in order to do this, theses agencies have consulted the charities that will be affected. If that appears to be a perverse circular tortology to you, we are of one mind!

Surely if the guidance is to be produced, the first step is for a draft to be drawn up by the law makers or their agents and then this shared with the charities to see if they feel it is workable or if there are any items that concern them. To begin by asking charities to explain how they feel the Act will affect them, particularly when all charities made their resistance to this terrible legislation clear seems to be completely incoherent. There is an adage that Laws are like sausages and should be made in secret. This law has been a disaster from the point at which a young fresh faced party leader told the nation that lobbying was the next big crisis to affect Parliament, and if he was elected it would be one of his first priorities. That was exactly 4 years ago and so far his actions have proven just how little he really meant those words.