Local News

19 September 2009 by The Scotsman

Roger Cox reviews, 'The Constant Economy'

Formerly editor of the Ecologist, Zac Goldsmith is now the Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for the London constituency of Richmond Park.  
At the last election, the Lib Dems’, Susan Kramer won that seat with 46.7 percent of the vote, while the Tories polled 39.5 percent and Labour came third with just 9.3 per cent.  It is possible, then, if not probably, that by this time next year Goldsmith will find himself part of a David Cameron-led Tory government.  In that eventuality what kind of MP would bright-eyed Zac the lad become?

Well, on the basis of ‘The Constant Economy’, in which he sets out his manifesto for a greener, fairer world, he would be exactly the kind of bold, environment-first politician that this country has been crying our for for years.  If I had had a cast-iron guarantee that a Tory government under Cameron would implement even half of the suggestions in this book, I’d break the habit of a lifetime and vote Conservative at the next election.

But hang on a minute: Goldsmith correctly identifies the unchecked power of big business as the root cause of a whole host of environmental whole host of environmental problems, yet aren’t the Tories supposed to be the party that looks after big business? He suggests the establishment of various publicly funded bodies to help safeguard the environment, but aren’t the Tories supposed to be all about making government smaller not bigger?

I found myself cheering almost every page of The Constant Economy, while wondering whether Goldsmith had confused the Conservatives with the Lib Dems and joined the wrong party by mistake or cooked up some sort of harebrained scheme for changing the party from within.

Then again, perhaps the Tory leopard really has changed its spots.  After all, David Cameron has promised to “stand up to big business”; he has said a Conservative government would scrap plans for a third runway at Heathrow; heck, the Tories have even changed their loco from a carbon-emitting torch to a carbon-absorbing tree.  Being green isn’t necessarily the preserve of the Left.  There is a strand of community-empowerment and self-reliance running through The Constant Economy that will appeal to environmentalists and traditional Conservative voters alike.  The environmental problems facing us are far too great to be tied down to abstract concepts of Left and Right, anyway, particularly when such distinctions have become so hopelessly blurred in this country over the last 12 years.

The Constant Economy is a straightforward, clearly written ten-point plan for improving the UK’s approach to the environment, through intelligent regulation and carefully targeted taxation.  The key to Goldsmith’s philosophy is to be found in Chapter One, “Measuring What Matters”, where he explains why the main tool we use for assessing the strength of our national finances GDP – provides a “grossly distorted picture” because it only measures paper wealth and doesn’t factor in environmental costs, such as forests, fisheries – a stable climate, even.  Chopping down a tree and selling the wood might increase our GDP, but.. well you get the idea.

If Zac were king - or perhaps environment minister – Step One would be the establishment of a “fully independent Progress Commission” charged with devising a system of measuring wealth that takes environmental and social wealth into account.  This commission would conduct an annual audit and the government would be expected to respond in accordance with its findings.  

What form would this response take?  Broadly-speaking, tax on “good things” such as employment would be reduced while taxes on “bad things” such a pollution would be ratcheted up.  More specifically, the percentage of the government food budget spent on locally sourced food would increase dramatically.  Elsewhere, supermarkets with more than an 8 percent market share would have to deal more fairly with farmers; industrial fishing operations would be encouraged to reduce bycatch; subsidies for fossil-fuel power plants would be phased out while subsidies for renewables would be increased; short-haul flights would be taxed to fund high-speed rail; householders would be paid for recycling rubbish while landfill tax would rise to compensate.

In short, this book is an environmentalist’s wet dream.  The question is: if and when it comes to the crunch, will the Tories have the cojones to implement the measures it suggests?