Monday, February 28, 2005

Several are in charge,so no one is charge-- PE's should hold the balance of power over the environment because their agendas are stable !
So who holds the power now - a dozen or so enterprises going in a dozen different directions.

Take two different extremes are where they are on a key environment worldview issue - shortterm gain.
!. Small players eg Rural communities have a deep commitment to holding a practical and realistic tension between short term gain and long term pain-- the key that lies at the heart of good long term planning. But they are not very effective at big picture level.

2. Big players The majority of new enterprise type industries do not focus on long term. Arguably "The Majority" do quite well talking up short term gain and answering to old and new causes. Very reactive -So why are governments still creating them ?where is the satble element?

Realities of the moment -Confusion. Who does the leadership believe and when ? They say "Government is Business" so which business ? The majority? Is that a good thing ? see govisnotbusiness

The outcome? Government activity on environment - failing in ten directions at once!
Still not convinced? For example, whose job is it too provide independent advice on development applications? The planners?, the strategic planners ,The departments of environment the NGOS , some QUANGO?, the CMA's , some high level policy group , state government committees, Some CODE , some private consultants , or heaven used to forbid it ---the courts . Talk about heaps of unsustainable process getting in the road of good governance !!!!!Things have got worse in the last ten years , not better.

The reality is that if several are in charge, no one is charge . Nooone is in charge and noone wants to work for 10 bosses- especially when they keep changing direction like the fund managers who follow the leaders .

No more Short term gain long term pain . PE can hold the balance by identifying the long term pain before it is sold as short term gain, under the guise of noise amongst the researchers and policy makers listed above .