Covid – an Alternative Inquiry
Putting Health at the Heart of a Green Recovery Strategy
Summary
(M. McEldowney, Emeritus Professor of Planning)
This book provides a post-Covid recovery strategy for the UK that is based on all aspects of health, but also addresses the ever-greater threat from global warming. Health and sustainability are interlocked.
More than other European nations, we favour libertarian values over social equity, privatized public services and lower taxes that reduce those services. From fair-minded pragmatism, we have descended into dogma, incompetence and intolerance.
Using the government's 5 guiding principles for a sustainable future, the book suggests how to improve distinct aspects of health:
personal health through more preventive medicine;
environmental health with lower transport and household emissions;
economic health through local (rather than global) production of goods and services;
social health by reducing gross health and wealth inequalities; and
political health through strategic commitment, fair taxes (a bedroom tax just on the poor?) and real devolution to local councils.
We need to think local, act local and act now.
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- About the author
- About the book
- This eBook can be cited
- Contents
- List of tables
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Using sound science responsibly
- Chapter 2 Living within the planet’s environmental limits
- Chapter 3 Achieving a sustainable economy
- Chapter 4 Ensuring a strong, healthy and just society
- Chapter 5 Promoting good governance
- Conclusion
- Index
- Series Index
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. The German
National Library lists this publication in the German National Bibliography; detailed biblio-
graphic data is available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023037406
ISBN 978-1-80374-284-7 (print)
ISBN 978-1-80374-292-2 (ePDF)
ISBN 978-1-80374-293-9 (ePub)
DOI 10.3726/b21150
© 2023 Peter Lang Group AG, Lausanne
Published by Peter Lang Ltd, Oxford, United Kingdom
info@peterlang.com - www.peterlang.com
David Williams has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988,
to be identified as Author of this Work.
All rights reserved.
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright.
Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the
publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions,
translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.
This publication has been peer reviewed.
About the author
David Williams (B Sc(Hons), MCD) has spent many happy years in planning, economic development and regeneration. After Liverpool and Bexley councils, and the Civic Trust Regeneration Unit, he set up Tellus 42 in 1997. This community planning consultancy was the RTPI’s Sole Practitioner of the Year in 2004. He is also the author of Civilizing Cities (2021).
About the book
‘This is a very good argument, with impressive detail, clear structure, and vehement commitment.’
– M. McEldowney, Emeritus Professor of Planning
This book provides a post-Covid recovery strategy for the UK that is based on all aspects of health, but also addresses the ever-greater threat from global warming. Health and sustainability are interlocked.
More than other European nations, we favour libertarian values over social equity, privatized public services and lower taxes that reduce those services. From fair-minded pragmatism, we have descended into dogma, incompetence and intolerance.
Using the government’s 5 guiding principles for a sustainable future, the book suggests how to improve distinct aspects of health:
• personal health through more preventive medicine;
• environmental health with lower transport and household emissions;
• economic health through local (rather than global) production of goods and services;
• social health by reducing gross health and wealth inequalities; and
• political health through strategic commitment, fair taxes (a bedroom tax just on the poor?) and real devolution to local councils.
We need to think local, act local and act now.
This eBook can be cited
This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.
Contents
Details
- Pages
- VIII, 144
- Year
- 2023
- ISBN (PDF)
- 9781803742922
- ISBN (ePUB)
- 9781803742939
- ISBN (Hardcover)
- 9781803742847
- DOI
- 10.3726/b21150
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 2023 (November)
- Keywords
- work ethic mega-corps mixed economy local democracy social equity government control libertarian values personal and public health transport energy privatization Covid municipal expertise inequality fair taxes green recovery strategy
- Published
- Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, New York, Wien, 2023. VIII, 144 pp., 10 tables.
