Massie wasn't impressed by David Cameron's speech on restoring trust in government:
Cameron had a populist swipe at lobbyists. Which is fine. No-one likes lobbyists. But Cameron's attitude towards lobbying is instructive, for it demonstrates the extent to which, despite his rhetoric, he remains a centraliser. The problem with lobbying is a "lack of transparency" and so he'll also slow down the revolving door, making it harder to ministers to move seamlessly into lobbying. Which is also fine but no more than tackling a symptom while ignoring the cause of the disease. Which is, silly, government.
The more lobbying there is, the more that's because the government intervenes in and interferes with so much, so often. The growth of lobbying is merely a commentary on the growth of government. "Tackling" lobbyists mistakes the problem and, in so doing, not only contradicts the putative idea of Open Source Toryism but helps confound it, making one suspect that, alas, Tory rhetoric will not be followed by real action. Here again, it would be nice to be mistaken...