Lobbying law needs updating because the government is run by people who know the price of everything and value of nothing
Last week, David Cameron, Britain’s former Conservative prime minister, claimed rather implausibly that his frantic lobbying of ministers and officials last year on behalf of failed Australian financier Lex Greensill was motivated by public service rather than private gain. Mr Cameron could say this with a straight face because he would not reveal, in four hours of testimony to MPs, his salary or the payout he was in line for had Greensill Capital survived the pandemic.
The sums were likely to have been embarrassingly large. Mr Cameron did cash in some of his shares in 2019. His reported 1% stake in the supply-chain finance company was reckoned at one stage to be worth £60m. Was Mr Cameron only in it for the money? A windfall would have suggested he was.
