The Talking Clock: Audit Commission denies lobbyist allegation

The Talking Clock is an opinion based, independently authored, small 'c' conservative, libertarian blog.

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Tuesday, 2 February 2010

Audit Commission denies lobbyist allegation

In Sunday's newspaper review, this blog highlighted a story from the Sunday Times which made claims about the Audit Commission and a lobbying group.

The Audit Commission has denied the claims - something this blog has been alerted to in our 'comments' section on the relevant blog post.

This blog is always happy to give two sides of a story to allow anyone and everyone to make up their own minds - no matter the story concerned.

So for the background original report in the Sunday Times, click HERE.

The Audit Commission's statement - also posted at their website - reads:

"The Audit Commission did not pay a public affairs company to lobby Tory shadow ministers.

Steve Bundred, the Commission chief executive, is today writing to Caroline Spelman, the shadow CLG secretary, and to Eric Pickles, the chairman of the Conservative Party, strongly to deny stories and statements to the effect that the Commission paid to lobby them or any other politician.

Mr Bundred is writing to the editor of the Sunday Times asking him to correct a set of errors in a story that appeared on 31 January in that paper.

In January 2009, the Commission's Public Affairs team asked Connect to undertake a specific piece of work called a Perceptions Audit and Influence Map, to help staff better understand expectations of Comprehensive Area Assessment.

This report cost £9,000 and was an assessment of views among opinion leaders across the political spectrum. It was used by communications staff and not seen by senior managers or members of the Commission board.

Neither Connect nor anybody else has ever been asked to 'lobby' or to contact anyone on behalf of the Commission and comments in the report are those of the authors alone."

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Forever... Diana

...genuine goodness is threatening to those at the opposite end of the moral spectrum.

"And when I look at people in public life... I'm not a political animal but I think the biggest disease this world suffers from in this day and age is the disease of people feeling unloved, and I know that I can give love - for a minute, for an hour, for a day, for a month, but I can give. I'm very happy to do that and I want to do that."
- Diana, Princess of Wales, 1996

"I think the British people need someone in public life to give affection, to make them feel important, to support them, to give them light in their dark tunnels. I see it as a possibly unique role, and yes, I've had difficulties, as everybody has witnessed over the years, but let's now use the knowledge I've gathered to help other people in distress."
- Diana, Princess of Wales, 1996

"Diana was the very essence of compassion, of duty, of style, of beauty. All over the world she was a symbol of selfless humanity, a standard-bearer for the rights of the truly downtrodden, a truly British girl who transcended nationality."
- Earl Spencer

"..she was our guardian, friend and protector. She never once allowed her unfaltering love for us to go unspoken or undemonstrated. She will always be remembered for her amazing public works. But behind the media glare, to us, just two loving children, she was quite simply the best mother in the world."
- Prince Harry

The People's Sovereignty

"...our membership of the European Union has removed our democracy; it has taken away the right of the British people to elect and dismiss those who make their laws. Our system of representative parliamentary democracy, for which millions have died over hundreds of years, has been frittered away. It no longer serves the people. That is why the time has come to give power back to the people. They deserve it anyway; it is their power and it belongs to them. Before long their anger will overflow if they do not get it back."

- Former UKIP leader Lord Pearson in the House of Lords, 5th February 2009

British resistance and liberty

"We British have in a very special way contributed to Europe. Over the centuries we have fought to prevent Europe from falling under the dominance of a single power. We have fought and we have died for her freedom. Only miles from here, in Belgium, lie the bodies of 120,000 British soldiers who died in the First World War.

Had it not been for that willingness to fight and to die, Europe would have been united long before now - but not in liberty, not in justice. It was British support to resistance movements throughout the last War that helped to keep alive the flame of liberty in so many countries until the day of liberation."

- Margaret Thatcher, Bruges, 1992

Tuesday, 2 February 2010

Audit Commission denies lobbyist allegation

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