I know what you mean by the government's addiction to management
consultants. But as I earn a living, sort of, as a "consultant," I would not
rule out the profession altogether. My moan, well one of them, is that the
people who paid the bills have not stepped aside from what one bunch of
consultants said and asked themselves, or, given the apparent lack on
in-house expertise, some other consultants, how to communicate their
messages.
I earned a bunch of cash because a previous Director General of the Research
Councils decided that he would never embark on a major new project without
having a tame writer on board to prevent him from making a fool of himself
with the sort of drivel I excoriated elsewhere.
I'm afraid I am not the sort of person who throws in the towel when I see
this sort of tosh. As well as sounding off in invisible places like this,
and the blog, I am not beyond sounding off to the people who pay for this
guff.
That's one of the benefits of being an OFAP (old fart at play) with a bus
pass, you don't have a lot so lose from dropping depth charges in
influential waters.
Harrumph.
Is no one going to defend that sort of language? There must be a point to
it, or the perpetrators would not bother with it. I can't believe that it
comes naturally to anyone.
MK
____________________________
Michael Kenward
ABSW e-minder
http://www.absw.org.uk
http://absw.blogspot.com/
-----Original Message-----
From: psci-com: on public engagement with science
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Francis Sedgemore
Sent: 26 January 2007 15:43
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PSCI-COM] The use of English
Michael
You are fighting a losing battle on this one, and can do no more than
lead by example. We now have government by management consultant,
it's cuts right across the political spectrum, and resistance is
utterly futile.
On 26 Jan 07, at 15:31, Michael Kenward wrote:
> I wonder if anybody else here stumbles over the slogan:
>
> "...creating excellence in public dialogue to inform better policy"
--
Dr Francis Sedgemore
tlf: +44 (0)7840 191336
web: www.skysong.eu
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