Public consultations – in defence of nuance!

Are car drivers too scared to look under the bonnet?

Those who found Donald Trump’s Inauguration speech last Friday distasteful have been dismissed as part of the political classes that have ostensibly lost touch with large parts of the electorate they are meant to serve. More accurately, what we may be witnessing is the tension between the technocrats and the marketeers!

Eighty years ago, in the early days of the motor car, you needed an oily-shirted mechanic to explain and express the difference between a Triumph and an Aston Martin. By the end of the century, relatively few drivers cared much what was under the bonnet, as long its looks and status on the road accorded with their self-image. In short, we had moved away from decision-making based upon a technical understanding to an obsession with outcomes and performance. Maybe this is what is happening to our politics. Is there a move away from any wish to understand what goes on under the political bonnet?