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One of the terms that’s used for up-to-the-minute information technology is Cloud computing. There have been worse examples of marketing hype; at least this conjures up an appropriate image of bits and bytes winging their way from place to place at the speed of light in the wireless world we now inhabit. It seems that […]

One of the most persistent urban myths about consultation is that it’s a numbers game. Reducing complex issues to a yes/no vote is always a risky business, and it is one of the reasons why quantitative surveys are gradually losing ground to more qualitative and more participative methods. For, in consultation, consultees are not always

The Local Government Association (LGA) has published a list of 200 terms “that public bodies should not use if they want to communicate with local people.” High time, you might say! Without doubt we all rely too much on jargon, and just as certainly a lot of it obscures rather than illuminates. Of the 200

There have always been debates about opting in or out of things. Forty years ago, it was about trades union membership; two decades later it was about stakeholder pensions; nowadays it is about organ donation. In all cases, it is an argument about whether society presumes a certain course of action, whilst letting individuals do

These are remarkable times, with thoughtful people concluding that the tectonic plates of economic, social and political structures are shifting. A few short months ago, we looked at Banks as among the most commanding heights of our economy; right now, the motor industry is on its knees and virtually every other business battening down the

A nurse offers to pray for a sick patient; two comedians overstep the mark on a radio show; another TV personality utters an unacceptable term in the “green” room. When, in the first case a Health Authority reacts, and the BBC in the other cases take action, it prompts an intense public debate. Clearly, there

With PricewaterhouseCoopers reporting 80% of high-street stores offering unseasonably early Sales, we have turned our eagle-eye on the effects of the credit crunch on public consultations. And, in keeping with the spirit of the age, the Institute offers superior value by offering this analysis a full four days ahead of schedule. An offer you can’t

We’re in danger of getting into something of a tangle about the different kinds of democracy we want. The old tried-and-tested representative version is thought by many to be creaking; the Power Commission a few years ago, and the more recent Councillors Commission have both produced ideas that might resuscitate the beast. Others believe that

Any day now a new Planning Bill will receive the Royal Assent. Commons rebellions have been quelled; Lords opposition has evaporated and economic and financial woes have wiped it off the newspaper headlines. But, in the real world, this imminent piece of legislation may have more impact upon our towns and villages than most recent

The great advantage of one-off consultations is that the period during which something unexpected can intervene is limited! In reality, however, many of the dialogues that take place do so over a longer timescale. There might be a series of sequential consultations – as with many in spatial planning, as development proposals gradually become more