Autumn: As work gets quieter for me and schoolwork ties up more of my family's time, I can soon spare some time for all these consultations we keep getting offered. And what do you know - I am too late for all the juicy ones I would have liked to have contributed to - Island Plan, Taxes, Crown Officers. I wonder; is Summer actually the best time for most people to examine these things, and my own life out of sync, or has there been a little sleight of hand to reduce the number of people inconveniencing the government with their opinions?
Any thoughts, anybody?
David Rotherham
"The Least Among Us"
2 months ago
I think there's a tendency to "overconsultation" - everything in the world is up for consultation, and it is difficult to know which to prioritise.
ReplyDeleteWhat would be useful to know is how effective the consultation is when it comes to forming policy. On balance, I would have said that the consultation on the Hopkins Masterplan / Sunken Road gave evenly balanced responses, possibly slightly more against, but there was not much indication that the chap receiving the consultations really addressed any of the contra arguments.
If consultations are not to be token attempts to make the public feel as if "they can have their say" because it makes no difference, then there needs to be some mechanism for showing that the politicians are listening; otherwise, it's about as useful as filling in a crossword puzzle, i.e., something to waste a bit of idle time on.
Off topic I know and apologise.
ReplyDeleteBut could I just implore "Big Trev" to put up a Blog posting about today's States Sitting? He single handedly (pun not intended) reminded me today why it is worth fighting for our children.
There is one thing that I can say after listening to today's debate, and that is that Big Trev does "care" about our children. And one person, in my opinion, got exposed for pretending to care for our children.
Please put a Blog up Trevor????????????????