E-Petition Fuels Commons Debate

A petition of over 100,000 signatures has prompted a debate in the Commons about fuel duty. Many would hail this as a great example of people power. But a feature on the Guardian website examines who was really behind this petition.

Polly Curtis’ Reality Check page (see here) reveals that the fuel duty campaign is “largely supported by the petrol-dependent industry – road haulage workers, insurance companies, the car press, and breakdown services such as the RAC, raising questions about whether it is truly representative of ordinary drivers themselves.” Started by a group calling themselves FairFuelUK, the campaign “is run by a professional group of lobbyists, the Why Not campaign, who advertise on their website their PR and communications specialists. Peter Carroll, Lynne Beaumont and Howard Cox are listed as the contacts for the FairFuelUK campaign. All three work for the Why Not campaign lobby firm”.

This provides some excellent information for AS Level Government and Politics students studying the topic of Pressure Groups- their tactics and the elitism/ pluralism issue about whether or not pressure groups really concentrate rather than dispersing power. Clearly in this case it is car industry rather than people “driving” the agenda.