Rumour has it that Scrooge lives somewhere in HM Treasury!
Seriously, most public bodies have an institutionalised kill-joy ready to shout Bah, Humbug at any form of consultation or public engagement.
Our Christmas wish is for such sad souls to experience the nightmare of Dickens’ original creation.
In the Ghost of Consultations Past, he or she-who-must-be-obeyed occasionally condescended to ask of the great unwashed whether there was anything they wanted! Answering this rhetorical question would probably provoke an explosion of rage. How dare the public answer back? After all, policy-makers always knew best .
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About the Author
Rhion Jones is considered a leading authority on Public Engagement and Consultation. A founding Director of the Consultation Institute, he is co-author of “The Art of Consultation” (2009) and “The Politics of Consultation” (2018). He has delivered over 500 training courses and Masterclasses and is a prolific writer on the subject, having written over 350 different Topic papers and over 50 full Briefing Papers for the Institute. Since 2003 over 15,000 person-days of training based on courses he invented have been delivered. Rhion is in demand as an entertaining Keynote Speaker and Special Adviser, particularly on the Law of Consultation, and its implications for Government and other Public Bodies. In 2017, he was awarded the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’.
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