Participation, consultation or just validation?
September 11, 2007 :: by Lee 0 responses
Richard Wilson from Involve has shared a video blog and some notes from last weekend's Nuclear Consultation across the UK about the future of nuclear power:
What we are seeing here is Brown coming up against his own New Politics. The processes run on Saturday are precisely the same ‘Citizen Summits’ that the Prime Minister committed to as the heart of his New Politics last week. Consultation no matter how new or innovative does not work if you have made your decision already.
The consultation events were run by Opinion Leader Research (the clue is in the name), an organisation that is part of Chime Communications and seems to be the partner of choice for government 'consultations' because of its ability to obtain the right answer, and also its closeness to the Labour party apparatus. Green groups, such as Greenpeace, pulled out of the process before the events because they regarded the process as nothing more than a PR exercise:
Tomorrow, just over 1,000 selected members of the public will be asked their view on nuclear power. But this is clearly a sham, the government has already made up its mind.
In May on BBC's Politics Show, Alistair Darling said, "I believe that nuclear ought to be part of the mix." In July, Gordon Brown told MPs, "we have made the decision to continue with nuclear power" before the new consultation had finished.
This latest round of consultation is clearly a rubber stamping exercise designed to push through the Prime Minister's pre-ordained policy on nuclear energy.
This is a shame. There is such a real need for genuine participation in solving some of the thorny issues of contemporary politics and governance that it surely counter-productive to continue this highly managed form of consultation/PR when it is obviously contributing to popular cynicism about government and its intentions. There are some smart people working on the edges of government right now who understand how to do this, but it seems the New Labour party still can't resist the control and spin reflex.
