New Labour gobbledegook

Sustainability.

In the New Labour world, the notion of entropy (disorder) does not exist. Everything is sustainable under New Labour, at least in theory. But what does sustainable mean?

The Department of Trade and Industry website helpfully informs us that:

‘The Sector Sustainability Challenge aims to stimulate action to catalyse implementation at company level. The Government wants to build on the Pioneers Group and strengthen our work with business so as to improve our understanding of delivering long term decoupling in key sectors whilst putting in place measures to support that transition’.

So that's clear, then.

There are now ‘sustainable schools’. Next month, there is a ‘delivering sustainable communities’ conference in Birmingham. A new organisation is being set up called ‘Academy of Sustainable Development’, where, as ‘Partnership and Liaison Manager’ on over £50,000 a year, the person appointed will be:

‘Liaising at a senior level with key organisations and government departments, you will ensure all stakeholders take a strategic and coordinated approach to the sustainable communities agenda’.

Lots of meetings, then.

Once the government introduces an idea like sustainability, the whole of the public sector latches on to it. The public sector and the government has to be seen to be 'joined up'.

So the NHS has a ‘sustainable procurement plan’. The North West of England has gone several words further and everyone in the North West, they say, ‘owns’ their sustainability:

‘By taking ownership of Action for Sustainability, its principles and practices, every organisation, business and individual has a part to play in securing a strong, sustainable future for the North West’.

Just in case people living in the North West don’t know what to do with their ownership of action for sustainability, don’t worry, there is an ‘integrated appraisal toolkit (IAT)’ which,

‘… is a tool for helping decision makers, planners and investors in organisations throughout the North West region to assess and improve the sustainability of their projects, plans, policies and strategies.’

Sustainability is all the rage. Over on the other side of the country, there is ‘sustainable Hull’. York has not got there yet. They are working ‘towards a sustainable York’. Scotland is still getting there by ‘building a sustainable Scotland’. Newcastle is still at the aspirational stage. ‘We want to create a vibrant, inclusive, safe, sustainable and modern European city’.

Climate change is, of course, the biggest sustainability challenge of them all. Climate change, Woking Council admits, is affecting their borough. Well, I never.

‘If action is not taken to reduce greenhouse gases (CO2 equivalent emissions) within 30 years there could be an irreversible effect on the Global Climate. This is why Woking Borough Council has taken a lead and developed its own Climate Change Strategy for the Borough’.

So Woking is taking the lead, but will China, India and the USA follow?

Even at nearby Hounslow Council, it is difficult to follow Woking's lead on climate change when you have Heathrow Airport in the borough. The word ‘unsustainable' can’t be mentioned. So, instead, we have from local councillor, Ruth Cadbury:

'Heathrow has reached the limit of its sustainable development'.

A bit of an understatement, as Hounslow Council readily admits:

'The levels of pollution in the air around Heathrow consistently breach EU Air Quality limits. Whilst the long-term effects of living in a poor air quality environment lead to lung and heart conditions, health-related research from Hounslow’s residents and teachers points to a link between respiratory illnesses and proximity to the airport’.

So, pretty unsustainable then, I would say, but no one dares say it. According to the more pessimistic forecasts, human life on Earth will more or less be over by the end of the century because of climate change.

But lets not worry about small matters like that. The Governnment takes a more upbeat view:

'Working together, we can do it'. We can save the world with New Labour (and Woking) taking the lead. Every little thing counts, as the Government's sustainability website (http://www.sustainable.org/) tells us, even running a small-scale event can impact on the climate:

'Any event can be successful and sustainable. This downloadable brochure offers ideas to help you get started. Even if you only implement a few, you will make a difference! '

The downloadable brochure tells us, among other things, that when organising a sustainable event that we should:

‘Meet at sites that are transport-accessible (bus, trolley, tram, etc.)'.

So, presumably, then, an unsustainable event does not meet at transport-accessible sites. Up the top of a mountain with no disability access perhaps?

Despite all the time, effort and money spent on urging sustainability to happen (by 'working together, we can do it'), reality prefers to differ. So we now have an unsustainable health service where health care is suspended to bring the budget back into line. Sustainable finances, but no health care, which isn't very sustainable if you are ill. What kind of a health service is that?

House prices, household debt, pension schemes, working all hours of the day, diminishing resources, oil prices, not to mention climate change, are all defying the edicts exhorting sustainability.

Our actions, as opposed to our nice words, are what count unfortunately.

King Canute understood that even he couldn't defy reality. A thousand years later, the Soviet Union tried and failed to defy reality, despite their 5-year plans which told them that everything was on course for utopia. New Labour is heading the same way along with all those mountains of paper plans piled up in offices around the country waiting to be disposed of in a rubbish tip near you.

© Andrew Hawkins 2006