I’ve been ploughing through the DCMS report (UK) on public libraries. Talk about joined up gobbledegook. I’ve never seen so many “outcomes”, “deliverables” and “access” in my life. Actually that’s not quite true. I once got involved with a UK government report looking at creativity in education and the final report was similarly unreadable.

The process behind the report was similarly superficial too. Just ask a bunch of people whose egos will respond to being asked, add some sexy design and, hey presto, a report that looks great at first glance but has absolutely no substance whatsoever. Of course this isn’t actually a problem because it’s the “reaching out” — the consultation with “stakeholders” that really counts. Nobody will read the whole report anyway.