Yesterday’s launch of the government’s ’red tape’ consultation is a classic. There are three types of consultation. One is where the government is obliged to hold such an exercise, knows the likely result, but has not the slightest intention of taking account of it (e.g. on GM or nuclear). A second is where the results are mixed, the government adopts what it’s already committed to, and ignores the rest. The third, of which the ‘red tape’ consultation is a good example, is a sort of agent provocateur exercise where the government wants to do something extremely controversial, but needs to incite sections of the population (in this case farmers and businesses) to get the backing to override strong anticipated resistance. Having said before the election that this would be the greenest government ever, Cameron after the election obviously wants to show to his supporters that it will actually be the brownest. Continue reading →