Are you ready to stand up and be counted?
Incoming governments are always warned there are three organisations in the UK they should avoid challenging: the Brigade of Guards, the National Farmers' Union and the British Medical Association.
This trio of powerful institutions with the strength to deter government interference may have lost some power over time, but the truth behind the warning still holds good. Government respects organisations with the power to threaten them.
I was reminded of the strength of effective lobbying while listening to David Michels, chief executive of Stakis, when he gave the Catering Arena 1996 Savoy Lecture.
He regarded the hospitality industry's failure to lobby as its most serious shortcoming. Governments do not take the industry or its interests seriously. To use Michels' words: "the industry does not punch its weight."
He argued the industry seemed to be unaware of its strength in electoral terms. There are at least 73 parliamentary constituencies where a large proportion of the working population is employed in tourism.
The inference is that with a general election looming ever closer, this industry - as an important local employer - should make its needs and views known to the candidates.
How many times at industry functions attended by politicians have we heard speakers remind those politicians that we are the second largest employer in the UK, but then fail to make the point that our work-force comprises voters with a vested interest in supporting the politicians who support them? Little wonder politicians see us as weak supplicants rather than powerful allies in their bid to keep office.
We need to be more aggressive in a planned fashion, rather than rude after the event. The former certainly applied at the recent Master Innholders annual conference dinner at Claridge's, when tourism minister Lord Inglewood came under attack after delivering an address in a manner described as arrogant and pompous.
The last-minute decision by Heritage Secretary Virginia Bottomley not to attend this important industry dinner, in favour of supporting her husband in his bid to win a parliamentary nomination for Worthing, was a brutally offensive wake-up call to this industry to recognise that politicians feel free to treat us with contempt.
The big question is, do we have the stomach as an industry to act aggressively in political terms? Do we have the kind of political courage of, say, the shipbuilding industry which is currently fighting for naval contracts and warning the Government of redundancies in key marginal seats if the contracts don't come?
My instinct says that we don't - and we won't, unless we are, as an industry, prepared to change the habits of a lifetime.
Subservient attitude
Some might argue that the activity of tourism and catering creates a subservient, behind-the-scenes attitude among managers and directors, rather than creating those who are up-front and pushy.
It does not come easy to those who have spent a lifetime being self-effacing to the customer to suddenly develop the self-confidence needed to challenge politicians.
Another argument is that the small size of most catering businesses and the emphasis on short-term, daily activity, rather than long-term planning, makes strategic lobbying to change the trading climate a low priority for us.
The high turnover of businesses and personnel isn't helpful either. If you are here today and gone tomorrow, whether through takeover or business failure, there is little incentive to invest time and money to influence politicians.
Maybe this year there will be a change. The juxtaposition of David Michels' observation, with the fury shown by those attending the Master Innholders dinner - after which 10 telegrams of bitter complaint were sent to the Prime Minister - suggests that our passive attitude towards the neglect of politicians is ending.
