The voice of the public

Deborah Mattinson, who founded Opinion Leader and until earlier this year was joint chair of Chime’s research division, appeared on Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday to talk about her new book, which is based on her experience as a pollster during the New Labour years.

The book’s title ‘Talking to a brick wall’, hints at a rather jaded view of how government has used public engagement. She spoke of her frustration at the many examples of “the public being in one place and the Westminster village being in another”.

Mattinson speculated about how the new coalition government’s latest engagement initiative, on the nasty subject of spending cuts, might go down with voters.

“It’s quite interesting now to see how that will unfold,” she said. “Will the voter really be taken along? Will the voter really be properly consulted? Will the voter really be made aware of those trade-offs as those cuts are considered, or not? If not, then it will, I’m afraid, be more of the same.”