Consultation – public’s views are called for on a decision already set in stone
Mitigation – let’s pretend we want to make it better
Environment – what’s that?
Route – a line on a map which could move anywhere if the pencil breaks and we have to rub out and start again
HS2 – how to simply spend lots of money we haven’t got
Construction costs – desperate attempt to prove the thing can be built to time and within budget
BCR – as the costs exceed benefits, its an irrelevance to HS2 staff
AoS – complex and contradictory look at how long things last but doesn’t worry about the future
EIA – earnest attempt to prove we really care what happens
Compensation – what you had before we came along with our plans, you won’t miss
Stakeholders – very unpopular people who run around making a lot of noise and wave placards, occasionally writing long reports which we immediately throw into our ultimate filing system
Consultation documents – these may, or may not describe the proposal accurately because we change our minds quite a lot
Appendix – the part of the consultation documents which no-one actually ever reads – and we know it so we put all the really important stuff there
Executive summary – makes it seem we tell it like it is, but the really key stuff is hidden way down in sub-sections
Key points – some might make it, but we like to keep a few really important ones for later
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