>Personally, I am more challenged by Frank's point about the
need to convince audiences that anybody is actually
listening when they tell us what they think......
I agree this is the key point. I've been involved in a few consultation
exercises, where the people being consulted have suggested a way forward
that (often for good reasons) the people doing the consulting are unable or
unwilling to implement. Planning a consultation therefore needs an initial
assessment of the solutions that are in play - the different choices that
the consulted are being asked to express opinions on.
>From this point of view, anyone planning Andy's national debate on the
genome could conduct a thought experiment: on what issues is there serious
disagreement; what are the range of possible points of view on each of these
issues; what action would logically follow if the debate came to consensus
around one of these points of view; and what chance is there of this action
being taken...
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