,
5 tweets,
1 min read
Read on Twitter
1/ Some interesting historical perspective on legislative conflicts of interest. In the months leading up to the Stamp Act crisis, the American colonies hired "agents" in England to lobby Prime Minister Grenville to attempt to persuade him to drop efforts to enact the new taxes.
2/ Some of the agents represented multiple specific colonies, and not all of them, either individually or as a collective.
3/ One of the agents was Benjamin Franklin. Others included Richard Jackson and Charles Garth -- both of whom were members of Parliament!
4/ Parliament, of course ultimately would have to vote on whether to approve Grenville's proposal. These were not legislators acting on behalf of constituents, or lobbying leadership to pursue their independent view of the common good, but rather acting as agents!
5/ There are at least two interesting things about this: (i) colonies hiring members of Parliament to help them avoid taxes, and (ii) members of Parliament being hired to lobby Parliamentary leaders on bills Parliament itself would be voting upon.
