And the moral is:

If you adopt a policy of exclusivity, professional snobbery and arrogance (and for instance you don't be arsed to publish your minutes for six months) and you regard the public whose hill it is as bleating know-nowt cattle without owners' rights, to be thrown an occasional turnip from on high, you cut yourself off from a rich reservoir of plain, democratic common sense and sometimes you look really daft and young and inexperienced as a result.