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help from departments. Even with these Policy Briefs C.D.0.s will still have to see what they mean in their District. One C.D.0. who has attempted to gather policy from orthodox sources says he finds the papers so general that he has to do a good deal of work to turn an abstract policy into something which has local meaning.
40.
On the whole we are not used enough for explaining government thinking. We are engaged in discussions with the Secretariat on publicity for new legislation, but if it is really desired that publicity should lead to general discussion and explanation then we need material on the thinking behind the law, the provisions of the law and, in important cases, shop window displays about it if we are to be of full use. This would be in addition to arranging as many meetings as experts could be found to address.
41.
There is some departmental reluctance to get material out. It is natural for an expert to want to get to grips direct with critics or anyone who is really interested, but he reduces his coverage if this is all he does. When we have been told that issues are too complicated to be put simply our reply is that if government thinking cannot be explained to sympathetic and not unintelligent people like C.D.0.s how can the message be put over to the man in the street? Much of the poor impression people have about government's performance is not held by people in intimate contact with the departments concerned. It is held by ordinary people not directly involved who know only what they see in the papers or gather in gossip. It is to put right these
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