大象传媒

Tuesday, 20 February, 2007

• Newsnight
• 20 Feb 07, 05:26 PM

Do we need more social housing? Ruth Kelly thinks so and wants a national debate on the subject. We'll examine what "social housing" might mean in the 21st century.

Plus, what you get for your Yen these days, Ethical Wife Bee Rowlatt takes charge of the family's investments, and Tony Blair's email to angry motorists - we've got a Dead Ringer to muse on how it might read.

Emily presents on - 大象传媒 Two/ as per - your thoughts below - many thanks.

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Ethical Wife in cash giveaway shock

• Newsnight
• 20 Feb 07, 03:30 PM

By Bee Rowlatt, Ethical Woman

I鈥檒l admit that when it comes to money, like most of us, I have no idea what it鈥檚 doing when it鈥檚 not actually in my pocket. So I was more than a little nervous when Newsnight asked me to give my husband鈥檚 finances the ethical once-over.

This all came about as a result of my revelation, seven month鈥檚 into Justin鈥檚 stint as Newsnight鈥檚 , that he had quietly held onto a small but profitable shareholding in an oil company.

So I鈥檇 got my hands on his filthy lucre. My first instinct was to sell the shares and give all the money to charity 鈥� not something Justin does very often. But this is supposed to be an exercise in ethical finance. So here鈥檚 the question: is it ok for an ethical man to hold shares in an oil company?

Justin鈥檚 shares - as a portion of the oil company 鈥� equate to over four tonnes of carbon. Add that to our family鈥檚 carbon footprint and it would increase it by a whopping 40% - from 10 to 14 tonnes. As Justin鈥檚 wife, this is my footprint too: I was ready to flog the shares there and then.

Then our , Professor Tim Jackson, pointed out that it鈥檚 the people who pump Justin鈥檚 company鈥檚 product into their cars and factories who end up 鈥渙wning鈥� the carbon cost.

But surely by making a profit from the oil industry you must be held at least partially responsible for its consequences?

Justin argues that there is nothing inherently wrong with investing in an oil company. He pointed out that we all use oil in one form or another, and it has to come from somewhere. But I suspected that not all oil companies are the same.

My job was made more difficult because the oil company in question refused to participate. So I tried several other British oil companies instead. They wouldn鈥檛 take part either. Were they all feeling a little vulnerable about their activities?

This wasn鈥檛 to be the only rebuff I encountered. I went to a glamorous City event celebrating five years of the , an index that encourages corporate social responsibility. And even here - despite the flowing champagne - the big business leaders refused to discuss their ethical credentials with me.

Naturally the anti-oil industry campaigners were all too happy to talk, and I also got some help from ethical fund managers and other city sources. Even the Environment Secretary, a man tipped to be the future prime minister, stepped into the fray to advise on what Justin should do.

Here鈥檚 what I told them: the company Justin has invested his money in shares in is a relatively small company specialising in oil exploration. As oil companies go it isn鈥檛 remarkably bad, but then it isn鈥檛 especially good either. (I found no records of the company even hinting at green technologies like carbon sequestration or bio-fuels.)

So should I keep the shares, or should I sell them? And if I sell them, what should I do with the profits...?

I turned to a very ethical man indeed - a Canon, no less. Canon Christopher Hall is a life-long environmental campaigner. He also has shares in Shell Oil. His advice was that the best way to deal with the ethical conundrums posed by the shares was鈥� to keep them!

He argues that the best way to change companies is from within. At last year鈥檚 AGM, he lobbied Shell to change their corporate behaviour, and persuaded another 拢10-billion-worth of shareholders to defy the board.

I find this compelling, but would the shareholder in question, my husband Justin, feel the same? Justin is no campaigner. He didn鈥檛 seem to know much his company鈥檚 activities, and by his own admission he has never so much as been to an AGM.

My mind was made up 鈥� the shares had to go. Now I needed to find something ethical to do with the profits.

Ethical finance is a subjective business. There are some things you simply don鈥檛 do: nukes, tobacco and arms. But after that, it is a bit of a pick 鈥榥鈥� mix. You choose what matters to you 鈥� be it animal rights, religion, human rights, the environment 鈥� and then you select your investments accordingly.

I was told that as well as excluding companies that 鈥渂ehave badly鈥�, I could also use my investment to encourage good: to put pressure on companies and keep them under scrutiny.

Not only that, you鈥檝e got to decide how 鈥済ood鈥� you want the companies you invest in to be. Ethical investment indices for environmental investments range from so-called dark green (very ethical!) to light green (more mainstream).

Given that Justin has the weighty title of Ethical Man to live up to, I didn鈥檛 mess around. Only a dark green fund was good enough for us. I knew his first question would be 鈥淏ut will it make money?鈥� but reassuringly .

But I also held some money back. Because I鈥檓 with all the people who have written in to Ethical Man to say that being ethical isn鈥檛 just about being green 鈥� it鈥檚 about being good. I still wanted to give some of that oil money to charity.

Giving to charity is a private matter, but I was surprised to find out that around a third of the British public rarely or never gives at all. Sadly Ethical Man falls into this category, the extent of his charitable giving is limited to a direct debit to Oxfam for the princely sum of 拢2 a month (and I鈥檓 sorry to add that it was me who set this up for him).

Just for fun I let Justin believe that I was going to give away the whole lot. But ultimately it is his money. Realistically 20% of it struck me as a figure I thought he鈥檇 find hard to argue against. I chose to target somewhere I felt the money would have the best impact, and so have chosen two small charities in which I have a personal interest:

and .

Not everyone has a share portfolio of course. But many of us have some savings or perhaps a baby bond to invest. So why let it languish in a bank when it could be out there doing some good, and maybe making you some money too!

Bee Rowlatt's film on Ethical investments will be shown on Newsnight at 2230GMT on 大象传媒 Two and on the on Tuesday 20 Feb.

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Cathay Craftz - Half Term blog

• Newsnight
• 20 Feb 07, 01:51 PM

In a scheme that hopes to encourage a generation of new young entrepreneurs, .

Newsnight is following one scheme, Cathay Craftz, and its entrepreneurs are blogging their progress here on Talk About Newsnight.

We've had a quiet but busy half term. A number of the team are revising for GCSEs so studying had to take priority for a few days - but we've still managed to make some money all the same!

Our delivery to Croma went well. They liked the Valentines mobiles we had made and were going to use them to highlight a beautiful water feature they have in the restaurant. They were very impressed with the quality of our work.

Then it was preparation for the Chinese New Year stall - we got our license and the plot for the stall through the post on Thursday. We'd got lots of products ready to sell and we were quietly confident... fingers crossed for the weather though!

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