The Greening of the Liberals? Tony Beamish Traces the Development of Green Thinking in the Party

The Greening of the Liberals? Tony Beamish traces the development of green thinking in the party. The adjective ‘Green’ is capable (in a political century. We are, indeed, in danger of losing sight of the fact that it is a challenge at all.’ In prac- context) of several interpretations. For present tice, the press and most politicians, even when purposes it is only necessary to point up the they are aware of the Green, or ecological, ar- difference between what may be called (light) green, guments, do manage to confuse these two quite different philosophical stances; the radical im- with a small ‘g’, and (dark) Green with a capital ‘G’: plications of the (dark) Green case are only appreciated by a small (but growing) minority green: being genuinely (or ostensibly) concerned of people, many of whom now either look to about the protection of the natural and man- self-defined Green parties for their political rep- made environment, and of other species and resentation, or – more commonly – have given their habitats, and about the conservation of up on the political process altogether. natural resources. This subsumes conservationism For the Victorians, ‘progress’ (what we and environmentalism, and requires no funda- would now call ‘economic growth’) was essen- mental change in philosophical beliefs. tial, desirable and in normal times achievable, allowing for hiccups when the free market Green: believing that modern societies and failed to do its job properly. However, it is pos- economies need to be comprehensively re- sible to discern in J. S. Mill’s writings signs that structured. According to this view, industrial he was actually one of the first Greens; for ex- capitalism is coming to the end of the road; ample, he wrote: ‘It must always have been seen instead of desperately trying to achieve ever … by political economists, that the increase in greater material output, trade, and sales, we wealth is not boundless: that at the end of what should be seeking a ‘soft landing’ for the sys- they term the progressive state lies the station- tem. A shift of emphasis, in fact, from consum- ary state, that all progress in wealth is but a post- erism to conservationism, from competition to co- ponement of this, and that each step in advance operation and from global to local. It could be is an approach to it.’ summarised as a shift from quantitative to quali- But this view, like its modern equivalent tative criteria in decision-making – a position (derisively called ‘no-growth’, with the implied which is, of course, quite incompatible with corollary ‘no-good’) was ignored; far from ‘al- the faith in generalised economic expansion- ways having been seen by political economists’, ism held by most Western peoples and their it was hardly considered at all. However, other governments. nineteenth century thinkers (not economists) Greens in this sense are also concerned that also had reservations about industrialism. the world’s population is too large, and feel that William Morris was famous for his stand against any proposal to deal with current social, eco- it. John Ruskin, too, expressed some green nomic and ecological problems must take this ideas. He wrote, for example: ‘Private enter- into account. prise should never be interfered with … so long Andrew Dobson, in his book Green Politi- as it is indeed “enterprise” … and so long as it cal Thought, writes: ‘If we confuse Green poli- is indeed “private”, paying its own way at its tics (capital ‘G’) with either Conservationism own cost, and in no wise harmfully affecting or Environmentalism (these being green with public comforts or interests. But “private en- a small ‘g’) then we severely distort and mis- terprise” which poisons its neighbourhood, or understand the nature of the Green challenge speculates for individual gain at common risk, to the political, social, economic and scientific is very sharply to be interfered with.’ consensus that dominates the late twentieth Such sentiments were not appreciated by journal of liberal democrat history 21: winter 1998–99 15 society at large, nor by the nascent thinking than anyone since Marx – now been extended. In the nine- Liberal Party, simply because the and who, it must be added, changed teenth century the term political nineteenth century was not a green his ideas from time to time – wrote: economy was commonly used, and century, let alone a Green one. Peo- ‘Ideas, knowledge, science, hospital- in the twentieth politicians have ple and parties were fixated with ity, travel – these are things which taken for granted the over-riding ‘progress’; social and even moral ad- should of their nature be interna- importance of economics. But peo- vances were seen as the natural con- tional. But let goods be homespun wher- ple are now beginning to realise not comitants of economic growth. For ever it is reasonably and conveniently only that ‘the economy’ forms just a a hundred years both greenness and possible; and, above all, let finance be part – Greens would say ‘too great a Greenness were to be considered (if primarily national. We do not wish, part’ – of the world’s ecosystem, but they were considered at all) to be therefore, to be at the mercy of also that economic considerations idealistic and ‘woolly’. The Liberal world forces working out, or trying are playing too big a part in our pol- Party went with the flow; ‘economic to work out, some uniform equilib- ity. Consequently, it is time to start liberalism’ was the name of the game. rium according to the ideal princi- thinking and talking about political Laissez-faire and the competitive ples, if they can be called such, of ecology. spirit could justifiably be constrained laissez-faire capitalism. We wish … When the Club of Rome’s re- by governmental intervention only to be as free as we can make our- port Limits to Growth was published on grounds of justice, equity, or what selves from the interference of the in , a serious case for Green eco- are now called human rights. The outside world … [I] sympathise with nomics (and therefore politics) was environment was there to provide those who would minimise, rather made. With Schumacher’s Small Is the wherewithal for wealth creation, than … maximise, economic entan- Beautiful and The Ecologist’s Blueprint and there was plenty of environment glement among nations.’ for Survival, it made a substantial im- available. That was what life was all Keynes was one of the architects pact on the thinking of many peo- about; the spirit of the age simply of the post-second war settlement ple. So it was in the early s that was not green, and the Liberals could which, in the foundation of the the Liberal Party, like some sections not be blamed for something out- GATT, acknowledged the need to of the public, began to face up to side their world view. build up the international economy; the challenge of green – and even Even so, some of the great social but the International Trade Organi- Green – ideas. In , a commit- and economic reforms of the nine- sation he wanted, with the power to tee under the chairmanship of Stina teenth century, introduced by the regulate and control international Robson produced a Report on the Liberals, had an element of environ- trade, never materialised. (The WTO Environment, marking the real begin- mental justification; but these re- which was set up a few years ago ning of the greening – and the forms were not in any sense Green; puts increases in trade above all other Greening – of the party. In its intro- the idea that ‘modern society … considerations, environmental or so- duction, the ‘over-riding problems’ needed to be comprehensively re- cial, and it is a bold government were summarised as: structured’ would have been ridi- which argues against it.) .Population growth. culed. Green ideas, in fact, were not By the early s, when it was .Pollution. part of the philosophy of the public possible for Macmillan to claim that . Economic growth as measured at large or of any political party un- ‘we had never had it so good’, soci- in terms of GNP. til well after the second world war. ety at large, including the Liberal . The finite resources of the world. However, it is worth noting that, al- Party, was locked into the unGreen, These problems are well displayed in though it contained nothing which materialistic view that production, the body of the document, which would be thought of as Green nowa- trade and consumption were all was certainly responsible for substan- days, the famous ‘Yellow Book’ of ‘good things’. Not only should in- tial advances in the party’s thinking, did include a strong defence of creases in them be encouraged, but except for point – always a prob- the countryside and advocated the attempts to limit them, for any rea- lem for Liberals! idea of National Parks. son, were deplored as ‘protectionism’. A few milestones will give the An important part of the expan- At about the same time, however, picture: sionary world view was the notion Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring ap- The election manifesto of free trade. The great economic peared, the first of many contained almost nothing on any debates of the nineteenth century ‘doomwatch’ books pointing out subject which might be classed as were very largely to do with the rela- one or other hitherto unremarked green, but there was a brief refer- tive merits of free trade, which was, disadvantages of indiscriminate eco- ence to ‘the dangers of pollution and of course, one of the founding prin- nomic and technological ‘progress’. the damage we have done to the ciples of Liberalism, and of its per- In effect, the grounds of the great environment.’ The Young Liberals’ list ceived antithesis, protectionism.

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