Annex 1: In lieu of introduction

Through Metaphor to a Sustainable Ecology of Development Policies (Part #10)

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'The Green Party prides itself on its global vision, and it believes in a quieter, more harmonious society, but at its conference it proved itself incapable of preserving peace and harmony among a few hundred delegates.... Sara Perkin, a leading Green, felt compelled to warn against extremist infiltration. 'Dark Green' idealists slugged it out with 'Light Green' realists. It proves the old rule that the more any organisation preaches universal love, the more its members hate each other....the problems which the British Greens are now experiencing have alrady been experienced by the European sister parties, most notably in Germany. There, as in Britain, divides between Greens, and divides between Greens and their supporters, threatened to support their movement.' (Editorial, Sunday Correspondent, 24 Sept 1989)

'The Green Party must streamline the presentation of its central message... Jonathon Porritt, director of Frriends of twhe Earth, told a conference fringe meeting...But he said, holding up a copy of theparty's 124-page Manifesto for a Sustainable Society 'they honestly don't want to know about quite a lot of the stuff in this, and I don't actually think a lot of you do either'. He then held up a copy of the conference agenda -- which most party members find hard to understand -- and said to applause and laughter: 'This method of policy development is not sustainable. It will cause the party great harm." (Colin Hughes, The Independent, 23 September 1989)

'This vagueness about policy is not just a matter of weasel words in the policy review document. Being in the policy review document does not mean that an action will make it into the manifesto. This vagueness is no accident. The purpose of the policy review was not to change the policy of the Labour Party but to create an image that the party had changed. Whether it is right that politics should start with an image rather than policies is arguable. Having done it myself, I understand why virtually no one has bothered to read through the Labour policy document. Creating an image is what the new politics is about, whether from Right or Left...' (David Blake, 'Never Mind the Policy, Feel the Image', Sunday Correspondent, 24 September 1989)

'Ministers recoil in outrage from the latest propaganda exercise by the British Medical Association...The BMA ads are examples of the mode of dialogue which, putting all others far into the shade, now passes for decisive political debate. Government by ad-man's slogan, a thousand times repeated, is Thatcherism's distinctive contribution to the currency of the age...The BMA campaign is in direct lineal descent from the Saatchi's 'Labour Isn't Working'. Its crudity, and even its typeface, exactly replicate the wondrous effort that is supposed to have turned the last election...' (Hugo Young, Guardian, August 1989)

'For soldiers, war is hell. For politicians, war is merely useful, an easy and imprecise metaphor when dramatic effect is needed. Confronted with the intractable problems of poverty and drugs, American politicians are always declaring 'war' as a substitute for making hard choices...the President would do well to forgo the overworked war metaphor. Instead he should try to explain the interrelated social and legal problems bound up in the double-ediged crisis America faces.' (Jim Hoagland, International herald Tribune, August 1989)

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