It’s who you know and what you know
7th Feb 2011
"Like many public affairs practitioners, we are often asked to explain how it is that we are able to influence the policymaking process on behalf of our clients. There’s a general misunderstanding that lobbying, or ‘public affairs’ to use the modern terminology, is essentially about being able to get things done through having an extensive contact book, and being able to call in favours from Ministers, MPs and officials. By extension, the assumption is that by using professional public affairs and communications support, powerful interests are able to subvert the democratic process and gain undue attention and support for their narrow and selfish concerns.
Faced with such scrutiny, our response is that, at Westminster Advisers we believe in the power of transparent evidence-based argument. We deliver a highly skilled service to our clients - be they corporate, not for profit, business start-ups or social enterprises - enabling them to put their case in the most effective way to the people that matter at the right time.
Support for a client’s case is not won on the basis of who we take for lunch, but by being able to understand political objectives, and how they impact on clients’ activities. This is as relevant for the pro-bono work we are doing with a charity that rehabilitates former offenders by helping them find employment opportunities, as it is for the private equity firms who we help to understand the complex policy and regulatory environments around their investments."