What's the point of consultation?

There was some surprise that less than one person in a thousand in Buckinghamshire bothered to attend public meetings called throughout the county to discuss spending cuts.

Councillors felt people would flock through the doors to take part in their consultation... the public’s chance, they said, to decide where the forthcoming public spending axe would fall.

There are many reasons perhaps why people couldn’t be bothered. Mostly, of course, the very thought of spending an evening discussing local government finance is about as appetising as a squashed frog.

Then there’s the reasonable line of argument...”we elected you to make decisions, well make them. And we’ll let you know if we agree at the next election.”
But the whole business of “consultation” is treated cynically these days. And not without cause.

Can anyone recall any national or local government recommendation that has been changed or dropped after public consultation?

All that consultation has come to mean is “We’ll ask you. Listen to you. And then ignore everything you say (or find a good argument to knock it down).”
What’s the point of holding a consultation over the route of the proposed high speed rail line when Transport Secretary Philip Hammond meets protesters and begins the meeting by saying, in effect, “this is going to happen now let’s discuss how we can best accommodate it.”

In High Wycombe the council splutter that the up-coming consultation over the site for a new sports stadium is still relevant even though the man calling the shots, Wycombe Wanderers and London Wasps owner Steve Hayes, has said he wants it next to Booker Airfield. Anyone taking any bets on that it won’t be next to Booker Airfield.

So why bother telling councillors where to make cuts, when they have already decided what they are going to do anyway?

Just do it. And let the rest of us get back to moaning about it.