Do you like gardening? - then tell us your inside leg measurement!

It's being billed as our chance to help shape the future of Boston.
With the catchy title of "Your involvement in local decision making and the work of the Council - a questionnaire, " the quiz is just one of ten currently open consultations that the rate paying punters can complete.
But how much use is a survey like this?
Questions such as "Do you feel involved in making local decisions?" invariably invite the answer "no," and frankly, there seems little that can be done to change that state of affairs.
One that really caught our eye was the question "Would you like council meetings to be webcast?"
We think that this would be an excellent idea, as it offers a real opportunity to see our council in action - or otherwise.
Imagine being able to see first hand how our elected representatives discuss, debate and vote on important local issues.
Somehow, we think that even if the public wanted to see them in action, our councillors would not. Don't hold your breath waiting for this piece of local democracy to happen as it does with Lincolnshire County Council.
And whilst public consultation is important, we get the feeling that Boston Borough Council does it because it's cheap, easy and it makes them look good.
But a lot of the questionnaires seem merely to pay lip service to the search for public opinion.
Not only that, but every survey ends with more than a dozen "Corporate Monitoring Form" equal opportunities questions.
These questions are so detailed, and so intrusive (although there is the option to elect not to answer) that we get the feeling that the answers to this section are of more interest to the council than the purported survey.
After the usual questions about age, sex, ethnicity, and disability we move on to religion where it's possible to declare yourself without a religion, or to check one of eight boxes for popular religions, or if that isn't enough, to declare "any other religion or belief. Religions on offer include Jain - which for the uninitiated is an ancient Indian religion that teaches that the way to liberation and bliss is to live a life of harmlessness and renunciation to achieve liberation of the soul. We doubt that this box gets ticked very often in Boston.Oh, and let's not forget sexuality. You can choose from bisexual, gay man, gay woman/lesbian, heterosexual/straight, or tantalisingly "other (please specify below if you wish.")
If you're still in doubt, then the question "do you identify as transgender?" might be the one for you and if you answer yes, you're asked to indicate "which gender you live, or want to live in full-time."
Let's not forget that this is supposed to be a survey about your involvement in local decision making and the work of the council - but these self same questions are asked if you complete all the other surveys ... even down to the garden waste collection survey.
If anyone can tell us the connection between composting, religion and sexuality, we'd be pleased to hear it.
Any survey that seeks to gauge public opinion to improve the way that councils interact with the voters is helpful - but is all this peripheral stuff really necessary? It reeks of political correctness more than anything else.
And in our heart of hearts, we wonder whether - if this week were not "Consultation Week" - the borough would be that concerned about seeking our views. Surely, if they're that valuable and worth hearing, they're worth hearing all year round - not just for one week only.

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