B)
Pressure groups help the powerful in society bur not the weak. Discussion.
The statement above is on a subject, which has many layers so I find it difficult to be able to take a right or wrong stance because in some ways it is true, whilst in others it is not.
The first fact is that in one aspect, the above question is completely wrong. The powerful in society are normally on the receiving end of attacks by pressure groups mainly because they are the ones the pressure groups are objecting to in the first place. Tony Blair may be a very powerful man, but I doubt that most of the pressure groups are there to help; rather they are they to try and get him to do things for them. The very principle of pressure groups is for normal people to be able to tell the powerful people what they think and what they want. So, in that respect pressure groups are hindering the powerful people in society. However, if you look at it another way, you can see what the question is getting at. Most big, powerful pressure groups will need lots of money and powerful backing to be able to do anything significant. Ever heard of Care? Thought not, but they do exist and they are in the same as RSPCA but they are unlikely to ever become popular because they just don’t have the backing to make people aware of them. This is why some people think that pressure groups are just tool pieces for the rich and powerful because they are the only ones who can get a pressure group to be powerful enough to be heard. However, this again, is a shortsighted view if anyone were to say that. Yes, the big pressure groups will need powerful people to back them but they are not the only type of pressure group there is. There was a pressure group in Bury St Edmunds which was campaigning for a road not to be built which consisted of just local people and did not have nay large backing. All they needed was to print a few flyers to make themselves known to the people of bury and then they could just use local people to sign petitions and blockade the work site to achieve what they wanted. Local and small pressure groups can achieve a great deal with very little finance and perhaps these are the most effective at getting what people really believe in done. And yes, a poor person is not going to be able to start up a multinational pressure group overnight, but they can start up a local pressure group overnight and if they really feel that something needs to be done nationally, then I am sure they can join one of the many pressure groups that already deal with that type of thing.
Money and power are not needed to set up a pressure group and pressure groups do not help them the most. Pressure groups in their simplest form are something that anyone can easily join because it is fighting for the things that the average person will believe in. Sometimes powerful people back them up, but the benefits still come to the members and pressure groups help the average person more than they help the powerful person.
C J Littlewood
