Pressure Group Example – Why Insider Status is so important?

Pressure Group Example – Why Insider Status is so important?

During the Covid pandemic there was much discussion about the benefits and disadvantages of closing schools. Naturally, pressure groups on either side of the argument began to lobby the government to push their view.

On one side of the debate was a group called UsForThem, which opposed Covid safety measures in schools.  On the other side was a group called Parents United Against Unsafe Schools.

The Facebook group for UsForThem had 9,600 members. The Facebook group for Parents Against Unsafe Schools had 23,000. On the face of it, Parents Against Unsafe Schools, which had many more members, should have had more impact on government decisions. However, membership size is not as important as Insider Status.

UsForThem were able to gain the support of at least 17 Conservative MPs. Consequently, they were able to secure meetings with civil servants in the Department of Education. Parents Against Unsafe Schools did not gain the support of any Conservative MPs. Consequently, they did not gain access to the Department of Education and held no meetings with them.

Meanwhile, the then Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, responded promptly to an UsForThen petition on Change.org which called for masks not to be compulsory in schools. He did not respond to a petition from Parents United for Safe Schools which said that parents should not be fined if they decided against sending their children to school. For context, the UsforThem petition had 16,588 signatures whereas the Parents United Against Unsafe Schools petitions had 288,294 signatures.

The most important element therefore is not the size or the membership of the group. What matters most is insider status. UsForThem was advised by a former Tory Parliamentary candidate, Ed Barker, who was well connected in Conservative politics, having helped Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign in 2019. Barker’s connections were important in ensuring that UsForThem had better access to Conservative MPs who could then lobby the Department of Education on their behalf.

Pressure Group Success – It is all about insider status.