28th June 2011, 11:05 AM
Of course, if one were completely paranoid, which I am, one would say that meeting with Mike will allow the Minister to say that he's consulted widely, has listened to both sides of the debate, and has decided that Councillor Melton is right and that all these bunny huggers are just an obstruction to development and economic recovery! As I said before, it can be difficult to convince someone about why developers should have to pay to deal with archaeology if they reject the basic premise of the argument that archaeology is of any value. All they hear is some beardy type in a bad jumper wittering on about different coloured mud. I'm not suggesting that the Minister necessarily holds views like this (or that Mike has a beard or wears bad jumpers), but I'm just aware that there is a certain type of politician who goes into meetings like this purely so they can say that they've listened, when in fact they have no intention of altering a decision or preconception that they've already made.
You know Marcus. He once got lost in his own museum