Orman departs Interel to join Hume Brophy / plus ONLINE-ONLY ARTICLE on 'Lobbying the new Westminster'
BRUSSELS: Public affairs and comms agency Hume Brophy has recruited Matthew Orman as an account director.
Matthew Orman
The British 35-year-old has already started, moving from an associate director role at Interel, where he worked for more than eight years.
The appointment takes the size of four-year-old Hume Brophy’s Brussels team to 12 consultants, and 35 overall.
The agency announced the recruitment of Gary Titley, the former Labour Group leader in the European Parliament, earlier this year (PAN, Feb).
ONLINE-ONLY ARTICLE: 'Lobbying the New Westminster. Lessons from Europe?'
By Matthew Orman
Amid the optimism expressed in a recent edition of Public Affairs News (May) regarding the potential financial windfall for lobbyists that a hung parliament would present, some caution among PA practitioners was also detectable.
The new regime brings with it an unfamiliar structure and culture that will need to be navigated and fast. How should businesses that had built their value proposition on the basis of well-worn processes continue to convince in what one contributor referred to as 'uncharted territory'? The answers will not lie in the digital archives, but experience of operating in such an environment is available, and a lot closer than one might think.
Coalition decision-making
Brussels decision-making has always been based on a coalition - of nationalities, parties and even institutions, and one in which lobbyists have a crucial role not only in influencing, but in finding and promoting the necessary consensus.
The need to gather cross-party support is the immediate and obvious similarity. European Parliament majorities – even slim ones - can require the support of three or more parties. Brussels lobbyists must not only reach out to them all simultaneously, but frequently act as go-betweens, sharing priorities and concerns and finding compromise.
If Westminster lobbyists are to earn their place in coalition decision-making, they too will need to be viewed as constructive contributors to the consensus process. Messages will still need to be tailored, but they will also have to be consistent. Discrepancies will be quickly identified and rejected if considered to be divisive.
It remains to be seen how whips will be drawn up. In past coalitions, these have been developed in parallel, but closely linked, but in this instance the focus is on one government despite the fact that some policy areas have already been ear-marked (taxation) where Liberal abstentions are provided for. In case of disagreement where unity is needed, the ultimate decision-making may fluctuate from issue to issue. To complicte matters further, it will be equally hard to predict when members will disobey the whips – be it on detail or principle.
Familiar unpredictability
This unpredictability is all too familiar in Brussels, where it is necessary to attract support from all political corners of a committee to achieve a majority, and even then, it is hard to guarantee. The more fractured the coalition becomes, the more Westminster decision-making will start to resemble the European Parliament.
The value of learning from the Brussels experience does not stop with the mechanics of the coalition, however. For the first time a senior member of the government will have experience of operating – and being lobbied - in a different legislature, and Nick Clegg is not alone in this regard. Westminster is now populated with more former MEPs than ever, including Tory rising stars Theresa Villiers and Chris Heaton-Harris, all of whose first exposure to lobbyists was in the EU.
A final and interesting element will be the statutory register of lobbyists, now that this is among the coalition ‘agreements reached’. Although Nick Clegg had become an MP before the introduction of the EU register in 2008, as a former lobbyist, he will have a better idea than most about its content and impact – and what elements the UK register may look to emulate as it looks to clamp down on Cameron’s ‘crony capitalism’.
The appointment takes the size of four-year-old Hume Brophy’s Brussels team to 12 consultants, and 35 overall.
The agency announced the recruitment of Gary Titley, the former Labour Group leader in the European Parliament, earlier this year (PAN, Feb).
ONLINE-ONLY ARTICLE: 'Lobbying the New Westminster. Lessons from Europe?'
By Matthew Orman
Amid the optimism expressed in a recent edition of Public Affairs News (May) regarding the potential financial windfall for lobbyists that a hung parliament would present, some caution among PA practitioners was also detectable.
The new regime brings with it an unfamiliar structure and culture that will need to be navigated and fast. How should businesses that had built their value proposition on the basis of well-worn processes continue to convince in what one contributor referred to as 'uncharted territory'? The answers will not lie in the digital archives, but experience of operating in such an environment is available, and a lot closer than one might think.
Coalition decision-making
Brussels decision-making has always been based on a coalition - of nationalities, parties and even institutions, and one in which lobbyists have a crucial role not only in influencing, but in finding and promoting the necessary consensus.
The need to gather cross-party support is the immediate and obvious similarity. European Parliament majorities – even slim ones - can require the support of three or more parties. Brussels lobbyists must not only reach out to them all simultaneously, but frequently act as go-betweens, sharing priorities and concerns and finding compromise.
If Westminster lobbyists are to earn their place in coalition decision-making, they too will need to be viewed as constructive contributors to the consensus process. Messages will still need to be tailored, but they will also have to be consistent. Discrepancies will be quickly identified and rejected if considered to be divisive.
It remains to be seen how whips will be drawn up. In past coalitions, these have been developed in parallel, but closely linked, but in this instance the focus is on one government despite the fact that some policy areas have already been ear-marked (taxation) where Liberal abstentions are provided for. In case of disagreement where unity is needed, the ultimate decision-making may fluctuate from issue to issue. To complicte matters further, it will be equally hard to predict when members will disobey the whips – be it on detail or principle.
Familiar unpredictability
This unpredictability is all too familiar in Brussels, where it is necessary to attract support from all political corners of a committee to achieve a majority, and even then, it is hard to guarantee. The more fractured the coalition becomes, the more Westminster decision-making will start to resemble the European Parliament.
The value of learning from the Brussels experience does not stop with the mechanics of the coalition, however. For the first time a senior member of the government will have experience of operating – and being lobbied - in a different legislature, and Nick Clegg is not alone in this regard. Westminster is now populated with more former MEPs than ever, including Tory rising stars Theresa Villiers and Chris Heaton-Harris, all of whose first exposure to lobbyists was in the EU.
A final and interesting element will be the statutory register of lobbyists, now that this is among the coalition ‘agreements reached’. Although Nick Clegg had become an MP before the introduction of the EU register in 2008, as a former lobbyist, he will have a better idea than most about its content and impact – and what elements the UK register may look to emulate as it looks to clamp down on Cameron’s ‘crony capitalism’.
1st June 2010 by PAN staff
