One of the tricky things we have to wrestle at present is whether or not we should believe what often sounds like good policy, policy that trumpets the involvement of those who are to be affected by it. Is "engaging with the local" to be taken seriously or not? Is the language of participation a linguistic sleight of hand or an indicator of a revival of our democratic way of life? In looking in some detail at the Academies programme Stephen Ball pushes us back to wider issues such as these and suggests that too often we end up with "fast" policy and "elite" solutions in which government and big business impose their own aspirations and intentions on local communities.