The Secret State Top Five Ways To Learn What Government Is Planning

All too often organisations only bother to engage with government when there is a problem that they need to address.  But government often cannot react that quickly.  It can be a supertanker that takes time to manoeuvre and you certainly have little chance of stopping it.

There are two lessons from this.  Firstly, know what government is planning so that you can make informed decisions about engagement at the right time. Secondly, be prepared to commit resources to getting involved over a period of time in engaging with policy and building networks.  No self respecting organisation would fail to network in their sector and amongst their peers, so why is politics and government often treated differently when they can have such an impact on how an organisation operates.

Here’s how to find out what is being planned:

1. Parliament – the monitoring of Parliamentary proceedings remains the building block of any political communication.  Knowing what is going on, who is saying what, what campaigns are getting traction etc means that action can be taken. Parliamentary questions, debates, select committees, all party groups, early day motions, they all have to be considered.A recent example helps to prove the point.  Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, has been ‘combative’ is his relations with local government since entering government.  A recent ministerial statement by Pickles on local government finance claimed that there is a ‘secret state’ of unelected council tax levying bodies.  He went on to list these bodies and promised legislative proposals to increase their accountability and transparency. Only by being aware of these comments can those organisations potentially involved hope to take action.  If they don’t then they could face some dire government interventions riddled with unintended consequences.
2. Speeches – it is all too easy just to pay attention to the headlines carried in the media about the big set piece speeches.  It is often the detail that is more important and you can only understand this by reading the full speeches, not just the edited highlights. Also, junior ministers and the opposition all give speeches as well and often these are not the subject of any media coverage.  It does not make them any less important or relevant to you.You only have to consider the case of author Hilary Mantel’s recent speech and the media furore which followed to see how context and setting can be totally missed by the media and comments taken out of context.
3. The media – when Labour were in power they had a tactic of letting new policy ideas emerge through the media.  If there was an adverse reaction then they could claim that it was never government policy and then shelve it.  The ‘popular’ ones could then move forward.  This also meant that organisations, if they we paying attention, had the opportunity to make representations to government. Government still uses this tactic so organisations still need to be alert.
4. Engagement – pro-active engagement across the political spectrum means that you will pick up information and insight.  It is not just about government but also how the opposition is reacting, what tactics it may be adopting on an issue.  All this information will enable you to make informed decisions about your engagement and tactics.  Good networking should not just be applied to business circles but wider stakeholder audiences as well.  Often the challenge is then how this information is brought together and managed effectively – how do you ensure that the information is shared and acted upon?
5. Look back in time – few political ideas are new and many have a habit of coming back time and time again.  Taking a historical view may not be the most exciting of approaches but that does not make it any less correct.  Take public health, transport, finance all have ideas that come back every few years.  Learn from these.  You do not come to them with a blank sheet of paper, instead there may be knowledge and responses already in existence just waiting for their time to re-emerge.

By considering all these sources, a picture of what government is planning and what the potential risks or positives are can be drawn.  Once this is in place informed decisions about appropriate actions can be made.  The issue of what to do when you see a threat emerging is one that I will come back to in a future blog.