Dogs Case

Dear all,

I was completely unaware that tomorrow is Mr Cummings last day and as we are all of the creative persuasion I thought it would be nice to quickly cobble together a brief anthology of some of our best bits. If you don't have the time due to exams don't worry but for those who can (first mate B and Ivesy I'm looking at you!) it would be lovely if you could send me as many bits of writing that you want and maybe a brief comment to/on Mr Cumming? (Don't know, just a suggestion) And if anyone is around tomorrow and willing to lend a hand that would be great as my IT skills are about as good as Ives's!

Hope exams are going well and you aren't too stressed,

Meg.

When Douglas Hurd said this he was referring to the fact that when pressure groups are able to be powerful (as they should be in a pluralist system), they all compete for public attention and government backing. Consequently, the most popular pressure groups are able to have an excessively large impact on the direction of government policy/legislation, therefore restricting effective government or stopping the government from fully pursuing the direction that it wishes to go in.

Firefighting is the idea that when lots of pressure groups exist, all fighting for recognition and influence, the government ends up putting out fires (disputes/disagreements) to keep them placid and calm. They would argue that they could be doing better things.

It can undermine pluralism, as obviously when considering this view, some pressure groups are going to have far more influence than others - therefore encouraging elitism. It's kind of a paradox.

Hope that helps and good luck tomorrow!