Consultation? We call it insult-ation!

It was either Benjamin Disraeli or Mark Twain who popularised the phrase "there are lies, damn lies and statistics."
Had either man been alive today, we feel sure that they would add Boston Borough Council questionnaires to the list.
Take the latest 23-question epic on the borough's budget proposals for the next financial year.
Well, actually only around half that number since the rest pose important questions as to age, disability, ethnicity and sexuality.
But as we have often complained in the past, many of the questions posed are pitched in such a way as to create an answer of the sort required.
Take your starter for 1:
"The Council is proposing the suspension of Party in the Park 2009, with its possible reinstatement in 2010 subject to review. This will offer a substantial saving of £82,000. However, if Party in the Park is going to be available in future years there will have to be an entry fee."Please indicate whether you agree with the following two statements.
"A. I would pay £10 adult entry and £7.50 child entry
"B. I would pay more than £10 adult entry and £7.50 child entry"
The result of collecting answers to this question is to be able to claim that people either wish to do 1 or 2, or are not willing to pay as much as 1.
Nowhere is there the chance to cast a vote saying that the Party in the Park is really as Party in the Ark. It is out of date and an impossible luxury in today's spending climate.
Other questions include voting on whether or not improvements to the Geoff Moulder Leisure pool will or will not encourage the responder to take part in regular exercise. The question ignores the possibility that there are categories of people who will not use it because they cannot, even if they would wish to.
The issue of opening hours at the Haven and Guildhall and the transfer of the Tourist Information Centre are neatly fudged into a single question, when there are actually three distinct issues there.
The list of silly questions is as long as the number of questions in a pointless exercise that is largely constructed to produce the sort of answers required.
Read the whole thing on the borough council's website.
And they call this consultation.
At least the "con" syllable has a ring of truth about it!!

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