Political Penguin

Just got back from the first session of the 2007 Co-operative Party Annual Conference. Got 20 minutes or so to get back and find some supplies in the process so I’ll keep things brief.

The conference opened with a discussion Chaired by Gareth Thomas MP (He always seems to chair everything at conference) with a panel of Hilary Benn, a representative of businesses called Patricia and a guy from the Coop Group and someone from Friends of The Earth (yes I have an appalling memory for names I know).

There were a few key issues brought up in the discussion of which I’ll touch on.

The need to involve businesses particularly on the Research and Development side in driving forward greener technologies. An importance not to rush towards seemingly ‘green’ policies without thinking them through in particular relation to the marking of flowers flown in from Kenya that despite them being transported by air, would actually be more efficent than growing them in greenhouses in Holland. (The guy from Friends of the Earth mentioned that one, I do recall Hilary Benn saying something about it in February). That although there is good intention to label such flowers as having been transported by air, that it has led to consumers stopping buying such flowers and that not just the issue of the environment is important but the effect that it is having on Kenyan farmers.

The guy from the Co-op Group pointed to the big ambitions that it had set itself over ten years ago when such ‘green’ issues were not prevalent in the mainstream political discourse but even then the group took the decision not to invest in fossil fuel companies and I think what’s most important to note is that although that was the thinking of the Co-op Group a decade ago, the realities of future economic development and potential for long-term sustainable companies mean that the issues it was addressing then are now the issues that all businesses need to think about.

All in all things are going quite nicely. Met up with some familiar faces, got into an interesting conversation on home-made solar water heating systems and learned there’s a Black Country and Birmingham Inventors Society, might just have a look at that. Back in a Bit.