Consult first . . . then carry on regardless
Question Time event held at The County Council.
In the last few weeks the leaders of both the county council and Northampton borough council have whinged about the fact that few people bothered to join them in their lavishly advertised “budget consultation meetings”.
In case you missed these spectacular events, the average attendance at both meetings came somewhere between 12 and 14 people.
Now depending how you view such figures, while 14 electors out of an electorate of somewhere around 400,000 is fairly piddling but if you compare it to the number of Scottish Tory MPs – one out of an electorate of five-and-a-half-million – then the small coachload or large taxi load is not really that bad.
They were, however, predictable. Most citizens, confronted with a couple of hours of Jim or Wee David extolling the virtues of Tory thrift and good husbandry or a night in watching even half an hour of Bruce Forsyth’s favourite joke . . . well frankly it’s no contest.
But then, in a time of consultantitis, these two consultations were doomed. Even if both halls had been filled to the rafters, with people hanging from the tastefully painted images of former Tory pin-up, Rosie Bromwich (Cornwall central and ex-Towcester-very ex-Towcester!) then the exercise would have been futile.
All the decisions have already been taken, the cuts have already been made and apart from a little titillation round the edges, it’s a done deal. Once again we, the paying punters, have been done up like a kipper!
But then, when have any public consultations ever yielded anything different, unless of course it’s a bunch of Tory Nimbys complaining about a proletarian dog peeing on the village begonia bed? Then, of course, the dog is shot!
Think of all the consultations that have been announced in this newspaper, consider all the exhibitions serviced by charming young consultants with clipboards and leery smiles.
How many times have plans or proposals met with universal condemnation and criticism and the bright young things from the council have said: “You’re quite right, this is a rubbish proposal... we’ll tear it up now!”
Legions of Daily Mail readers, with green ink and spidery writing, complain about political correctness, usually a moan about equal opportunities or health and safety or some such Aunt Sally.
Yet the biggest confidence trick perpetrated by central and local government is the consultation tango. The golden rule seems to be ‘when in a hole, start a consultation process’ and then the appropriate box can be ticked and everything is sorted!
So, as a part of every report there appears the magic consultation clause. It matters not if it lasts a couple of days in the case of the new Northampton bus interchange or is extended by three months in the case of the seriously flawed NHS reorganisation
In every case the outcome will always be what the authors of the report intended, regardless of what the consultees wanted to see happen.
Take the NHS “reforms”. Andrew Lansley, we are told, worked tirelessly for decades locked away in a darkened room with a wet towel round his head.
He emerged blinking into the daylight with a finished product that was universally rubbished by everyone who worked in the health service.
The result?
Well, he should have been returned to the dark and locked room and the key thrown away.
Instead he extended the “consultation” period and more than 1,000 amendments were suggested. However, nothing of substance was changed and the coalition majority will push the heavily consulted but totally unaltered bill through parliament.
Job done!
You can consult till the cows come home but if the majority is big enough then nothing will ever change. Despite considerable huffing and puffing by Lib Dems in the House of Lords, their colleagues in the Commons will troop arm-in-arm through the aye lobby with the Tories.
Similarly in Northampton, despite widespread disquiet at the bus interchange proposals, the Tory councillors will troop through the aye lobby, this time arm-in-arm with both the Labour councillors and the Lib Dems.
A political floosy on each arm!
There was a time when parties presented election manifestos and you elected them on that basis and let them get on with the job.
If they screwed up then there was always an election around the corner.
Nowadays if they screw up . . . well they can always blame all of us.
After all: “You were consulted; it’s your fault this loopy/disastrous/hopeless/mediocre decision was arrived at. It wasn’t us, guv!”
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