I am not arguing that growth is bad. Try telling that to the poor. But what we should want to promote is the right sort of growth — growth that won’t ravage our future prospects.
We have to define the sustainability of growth in ways that create an attractive narrative for our citizens. At the moment, people applaud sustainable growth, but they don’t vote for what it means in practice.
German voters balk at any suggestion that we should limit the environmental damage caused by big and expensive cars. British voters line up behind the truck drivers when protests are launched against hikes in the price of petrol, not least through the introduction of higher energy taxes. Ideas for carbon taxes run into resistance everywhere.
I have five grandchildren below the age of four. By the time they qualify for pensions and the license to grumble, the century will be into its seventh or eighth decade. We hope!
How much will they have to get angry about then because of the way that we are behaving today?
Chris Patten, the last governor of Hong Kong and a former EU commissioner for external affairs, is chancellor of the University of Oxford.
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