Smoke and mirrors

I spoke with FD and GD and DP and they all told me that I had an excellent and logical case, and I should ask R in the appropriate government department. I asked RJ and his colleague DH. RJ is rude and didn't reply (he never does according to DP), but DH did answer me and tell me that it was a commercial decision for company FGW to make. I've written to several people at company FGW. AB wrote back to say she hoped they could provide me with what I was looking for, and GB wrote back to tell me that although it didn't look great, they hadn't yet made a final decision. Then this morning I heard back from AF, who's the managing director of FGW to tell me that they're not allowed to decide because of government rules; she suggests I write to the department where DH and RJ work.

Meanwhile, DT who's the boss as the government department concerned side steps questions put to him by the presenter of Radio 4's "You and yours" program, preferring to talk about different things to what he was being asked about .... and ZB of FGW tells me that although they're having a meeting for interested parties, too many people want to attend so I can't and I should talk to GD who they have invited. ZB rubs salt in the wound by confirming that they will be discussing the commercial decision that I'm on about, and that I've had over 120 people sign up to.

Time ticks on, not one person in the loop has said "I am a decision maker" ... it's just bounced around in a circle. You know - I can respect someone who makes a decision that goes against me if I know the situation has been fairly looked at. But I find it hard to respect someone (or sometwo or somethree or somefour) who try to hide things with a magician's smoke and mirrors trick. Oh - you may be able to identify some of the names involved here. From their viewpoint, the great thing about smoke and mirrors is that I can't clearly tell which of them is the decision maker but won't admit to it.
(written 2006-01-12, updated 2008-06-11)

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