Design Talk with Steve Kelsey: Public cash must go on projects that matter

In fact, the whole business has only served to reinforce my view that far from being the Mother of Parliaments, our democratic system is, in practice, a self-serving oligarchy. It has squandered our future incomes to support a financial system also founded on self service and has lost control of public spending elsewhere.

Even on the simplest matters affecting our future well being, the political class has abdicated responsibility. In this month’s column I want to lay out my manifesto for where the money could be spending our money usefully (that is, rather than on TVs and curtains).

So we need the following and we need them fast:

• A national recycling system that is well designed and well funded in order to close recycling loops. The current locally determined system is madness and designed to offset central government’s fiscal responsibility to pay any fines for underperformance rather than be democratic
• A clear and consistent carbon reduction policy that is well researched and fully defined
• This means extensive R&D. Currently there are no comparable measurement systems and therefore
no basis for any form of enforceable carbon cap & trade or carbon taxation
• A decent strategic energy supply policy. This must include investment in sustainable sources
• Real support to enable efficient and successful companies’ transition to a sustainable future. This would make a nice change from investing in unsuccessful and inefficient financial services and would also improve our competitive performance.

Any one of these issues would improve our economic and sustainable performance and together they would provide a substantial competitive edge. But none of this is going to happen because none of it directly affects our self-declared masters’ lifestyles or sense of self-worth.

Instead, it’s far easier for them to obfuscate issues to hide their importance, offset responsibility to alternative authorities and, when they can no longer avoid action, delegate to quangos with limited budgets.

I would wish a plague on all their houses. But as we appear to have paid for most of these (and their expensive accessories) I will settle for a rebate – and I want it now.

Steve Kelsey is strategic innovations director at PI Global. Send comments for Steve to packagingnews.editorial@haymarket.com