The strength of the government’s majority in the House of Commons and the state of the opposition are big factors in affecting the influence of pressure groups. Up until the May 2005 general elections, Tony Blair’s sofa government had a big majority in the H.C. Due to the Kidderminster elections both governments, and the Labour MP’s were not as venerable from activities of pressure groups.
Insider pressure groups are less common than outsider groups as many groups feel as though they would not be able to truly voice their opinion in the constraints of the government. These groups are generally outsider groups. Groups such as the often controversial “fathers for justice”, are very much outsider groups. In certain circumstances where the government has a smaller commons majority, pressure groups may feel that they have no opportunity to use more power on a weakened Executive.
Pressure groups have been around for centauries and do in fact work, for example the suffragette movement was an outsider group which helped garner the women’s vote. Pressure groups need to be strategic about who they want to target, and apply pressure on to. There is no point in offering their views in Westminster if it is a local issue the group are concerned about. More and more, the Scottish parliament is becoming the focus for pressure group lobbying as groups realise that their issues is decentralized issue. However not all outsider groups are the same. There are different degrees of being an outsider group. Terrorist groups such as Al’queda are on the margins. However there are groups who don’t go to such extremes as those deemed terrorists. Father’s For Justice is a prime example. They use attention seeking stunts; although extreme they are not to the same extremes of terrorist organisations. They are, however, deemed an outsider groups for their “extreme” measures to capture the attention of the public. However, other groups are not so extreme like the Scottish cool crusaders, who have petitions to try and influence European quotas on the North Sea. Through their not so extreme ways of getting attention, they have garnered support form respected politicians, such as Alex Salmond.
So when do pressure groups become outsider or insider groups? Well, some pressure groups have a history of being insider and outsider groups; this is partly due to the political complexity of the government at the time. For example the TUC, the trade union Congress; in the 1970’s were a powerful pressure group and their views were listened to carefully and were very much on the insider track. However, the conservatives in the 1980’s put them back into and outsider track. Today new labour has kept the Trade unions at arms length, and they are not given special status like the BMA.
One of the most prominent outsider pressure groups is “Make poverty History”. It is a prime example of a both insider and outsider pressure group. It has coined the term as an umbrella group in the sense that there are many pressure groups operating underneath it. For example the SCIAF who are an insider group and the Anti globalisation demonstrators who are an outsider group.
On the whole, it is very difficult to evaluate the impact that pressure groups have upon the decision making in central government. Evidently, they do bring about change but how much change they bring is still an unanswered question. Pressure groups influence is more likely to bring about changes in the long term. Actions of protestors and demonstrators in insider groups are more likely to be criticized for their methods, and thus less likely to bring about change. Even the methods that outsider groups use will not bring about a great deal of change; however, they do receive a lot of media coverage which will bring attention to their cause. For example the Make Poverty history campaign put Africa poverty on the front page of every news paper.
Today, we live in a democracy. Pressure groups have the right to protest and introduce their causes to government. If their causes are popular government will listen and respond to certain groups demands, as the loss of support will ultimately lead to the decrease in election results for the government in power.