One of the undoubted challenges facing those who organise consultations is that the target audience is very seldom homogeneous.

The nearest we may get to this convenient state is when a trade body consults its members; when the General Medical Council consults doctors, for example, or when the Arts Council consults Theatre Managers. Even then there are, of course, differences. A newly-qualified junior doctor’s perspective will clearly differ from one with forty years experience of general practice. In our Arts example there is, presumably, quite a difference between the Manager of Stratford’s new Royal Shakespeare Company showcase and the part-timers struggling to keep a local Rep theatre in one of our market towns.