Free Thinking in the Summer

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 11 July 2013

⏱️ 44 minutes

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Summary

Rana Mitter chairs a debate from the York Festival of Ideas on whether we can afford ethical business. The panel includes The Guardian's Lucy Siegle, Adrian Wooldridge of The Economist, founder of Ethical Superstore Andy Redfern and economist Virginie Perotin. As austerity bites into family finances and public services, cheap goods seem ever more attractive, even vital. But is there a price to pay in fairness, and to the environment? York has a long history of making ethical business ideals a reality, but can those ideas be carried forward into the era of austerity?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, it's a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that at some level of genius. It also helps
0:21.2	that it's a long time ago, right? It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream
0:26.1	van plays music when it's out of ice cream. Listen to evil genius on BBC sounds.
0:32.1	This is a download from the BBC. For more information and our terms of use, go to BBC.co.uk slash radio three.
0:40.7	Ethical capitalism.
0:42.7	Well, I want you to put aside all thoughts of hand-knitted mung bean-flavored carpet tiles
0:47.3	because social business has become big business.
0:50.7	According to government minister Nick Hurd, social enterprises contribute more than 55 billion pounds a year to our economy, and they make up some 15% of the UK's small and medium-sized businesses.
1:03.0	But it costs us as well. The government is also putting some 56 million pounds into the Big Society capital fund, and that's 56 million in
1:12.4	taxpayers' money. Today, free thinking in the summer is in York, where round trees has become
1:19.0	synonymous with Quaker-flavored philanthropy, as well as chunky chocolate bars, surely a sign that
1:24.2	profit and principles are not at odds.
1:32.5	And of course, public anger at tax avoidance by major companies has continued to dominate the news.
1:43.9	Yet all the same, as the recession continues, do we need to concentrate on getting businesses to do what they do best, making money, and leaving the ethics to civil society? In the words of an economist I spoke to recently,
1:46.9	there is only one corporate social responsibility, and that is the responsibility to make profits.
1:53.7	Well, to debate whether we can afford ethical capitalism, with me here, I have journalists
1:59.4	Lucy Siegel of the Guardian and Adrian
2:01.7	Waldrich of the Economist, Economist Viochini Perotin of Leeds University, and Andy Redfern,
2:07.3	the chief executive of the Ethical Superstore. Would you please welcome them all here today?
2:25.5	So let me put the core question to our panel in a time of undoubted economic austerity.
2:32.4	Lucy Siegel, can we afford to pay special attention to ethics and business even when it may cost us more?
2:35.9	Well, the question actually is, can you afford not to?
	...

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