Tuesday Topic

There are 10,000 odd parish or town councils in England and Wales, and suddenly everyone wants to be nice to them. Deprived of powers, status and money, it is now […]

The new Mayor of London has made a remarkable pledge:- “I will consult the residents in the (Congestion Charge) zone and on the border on whether we should keep the

In the ideal world, it would never be necessary for law-makers to pass legislation insisting that public bodies co-operate with each other! That this became necessary, in the 2007 Local

250+ people at the Neil Stewart Associates conference on Community Consultation – Empowering Communities last week waited for Hazel Blears, but unfortunately she was unable to appear; neither was Caroline

In this Olympic year, it may be timely to reflect upon the styles adopted by some of the world’s athletes and other sportsmen. Some make a virtue of huffing, puffing

Today sees the launch-date for LINks – the new mechanism for harnessing the views of individuals and organisations about health and social care in England. So, somewhere today there will

Mention rugby to a Welshman these past few days, and you’ll have no difficulty kick-starting an animated dialogue! Everyone has an opinion and will take every opportunity to express it.

No, this is not a celebration of Bruce Forsyth’s 80th birthday, but recognition that doing justice to opposite ends of the age spectrum is a challenge for many organisations. The

People can always criticise a public consultation! Just on the timescales alone, it is quite a challenge to please everyone. Leaving aside the more obvious blunders such as announcing it

Those who wish to influence detailed aspects of these new policies have till 20th March to comment. But, although they apply only to England, the underlying principles raise interesting questions