So much has happened in the last couple of months (since I posted the message Spring Promise) that I have found it difficult to know how to comment. For a start, the political upheaval in the United Kingdom since the result of the referendum on our membership of the European Union has seen two party leaders depart and another under challenge. This is interesting because so many of those who said they voted to leave also claimed that they were seeking to slow down or even prevent changes that they blamed on European ‘interference’.
But Britain is not the only country experiencing a drift towards insularity and protests against what are seen as political elites who, it is claimed, are out of touch with the public mood. It seems to me that no individual leader or political party can possibly meet the disparate demands expressed so publicly via various streams of media, which have become so much more accessible since the advent of the internet.
It was with great pleasure that I saw that the opening of the Olympic Games in Rio featured the need for our environment to be cared for. If we all, as the collective human race, do not realise and embrace this message as a basis for progress any other political change, however popular it appears, will prove to be unsustainable. This is the reason I felt that I had to offer a potential new economic strategy in the paper ‘Accounting for sustainability’ to add to the other ideas contained within the pages on sustainability.
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Paul Newman
August 2016
About Paul Newman
Paul Newman BSc (Sociology), DMS, MA (Sustainable Development) worked for the Government for thirty years mostly on projects seeking to develop the UK Economy and has also been employed as a part-time lecturer, invigilator, events organiser and as a consultant on sustainable development projects. During his working life, he was a member of three professional bodies: The Chartered Management Institute; The Energy Institute; and The Royal Statistical Society.
He became a member of the voluntary group Sustainable Staffordshire in 1997 and subsequently served as first a Vice-Chair then Chair for a four year term, during this time he also became a volunteer and then a trustee of the Community Council of Staffordshire, which he continued to support as a member of its Board of Directors until its closure in 2018. He has also served three terms as a Councillor for Swynnterton Parish, been a trustee of Hanchurch Village Hall and member of Trentham PCC.
Since moving to Sheringham in Norfolk in 2021 and the death of his wife a year later, he has joined a number of local groups, which are relevant to the themes of this website, including Sustainable Saturday and the Sheringham History Group, he has become a member of local charities such as Sheringham Little Theatre and The Sheringham Museum and has served a term as a member of the Parochial Church Council of St. Peters, Sheringham. He has also helped to organise and spoken at an event on sustainability with local churches and Sheringham Town Council and is currently exploring the potential for solar photovoltaics and other renewable technology on church property as part of the programme being pursued by the Church of England Diocese of Norwich.
