Brittany Golob talks politics, political affairs and lobbying with the director of the European Azerbaijan Society and the new chair of the PRCA’s public affairs group

On lobbying in the UK and EU “The lobbying industry in the UK is quite large and quite sophisticated, but funnily enough probably not as large or as sophisticated as it could or should be...So whereas there are, roughly speaking, 5,000 lobbyists in the UK, there are 15,000 in Brussels.You would perhaps expect this because Brussels is the centre of an organisation that involves 28 countries. But it does suck in some of the budget and some of the talent and some of the influence from the member states.”

On the UK and the United States “I think we’ve always been very open to the idea of importing American lobbying techniques. In Brussels, there is sometimes a sort of ‘That’s not the way we do things, there is a Brussels way, there is a European way.’ With the Brits, we look around and see what works and we adopt or adapt it to the UK. I do a lot of training on public affairs and a lot of the techniques that we talk about and demonstrate come from America.”

On campaigning “I think we’ve perhaps been a bit slow to the idea of digital campaigning. I think we’re pretty well there now, however. I think the next election will be the first where digital really does make a huge difference.”

On political parties “People are extremely reluctant to join political parties, which is why the membership has shrunk dramatically. There’s about 200,000 Labour, about 140,000 Conservatives, about 60,000 Lib-Dem members. You then look at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds: 2m members; you look at the National Trust: 4m members. It is hard to compete with those numbers.”

On lobbyists “Lobbying is doing, 365 days a year, what most politicians do three-and-a-half weeks, every five years. It’s really intense, it’s always on, it’s always adapting, it never rests. Politicians in the UK, between elections, I’m not saying they sit there and do nothing, they certainly don’t, but their day job is legislating, sitting on committees, etc. And then, they focus on the election. If you’re a lobbyist, every day is election day.”

On the Lobbying Act “I think this is a starting point. Income tax started during the Napoleonic Wars as a temporary measure to fund the war and guess what? It’s still here. So the Lobbying Act and the Lobbying Register, they are just the starting point. It will only become wider, deeper, more expensive, more intrusive as time goes by, with every single ‘lobbying scandal’ new measures will be added.”

On the Lobbying Act’s challenges “It’s chicken and egg. Because very few people will register, it will be extremely expensive to register and therefore even fewer people will register. It’s a vicious circle. If it’s supposed to be self-financing, you will find, I suspect and fear, that only the top 20 consultancies in the UK out of the maybe 100 that operate will register and they will have to carry the whole cost and that will make it a very considerable cost.”

On public affairs as an industry “What we’re talking about is really a profession that is fully grown up, is very confident in itself, is confident in its own regulation, but is prepared to embrace anything within reason that the government puts its way in terms of regulation. We will work alongside them. But we do recognise that we’ve still got a way to go, the industry could be bigger and it could be better and that’s what makes it interesting and challenging. If it was all sorted than there wouldn’t be a need for people like me or organisations like us. But it’s a work in progress and we’re keen to be getting on with it.”

For more from Lionel Zetter, see this month’s PRCA Now on the Communicate newsstand on your iPad or Android tablet.