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John Elkington

John Elkington

A world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development.

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The Morning After

John Elkington · 1 February 2020 · Leave a Comment

Thank you our European friends and colleagues for their messages of support and commiseration yesterday.

History helps, a bit. It has happened not just once before, but several times. There was Henry VIII, of course. And then the Parliamentarians (aka Roundheads) took over the country during the Interregnum period, following the English Civil War. We endured the Protectorate Parliaments. Ultimately, Oliver Cromwell did no better than Charles I in handling parliaments.

So is this another interregnum? Might the wounds inflicted by Johnson, Gove et al never fully heal? Might their bulldozing of the expressed interests of half the nation (and latent interest of much of the rest) prove to have been a self-inflicted wound for these narcissistic ideologues?

Who knows. But if this prove to be the case, the anti-EU rebels might usefully ponder Cromwell’s posthumous fate, his exhumed body hanging in chains. We don’t do such things any more, but reputations arrive on foot – but can depart on horseback, as they used to say.

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Introduction

I began this blog with an entry reporting on a visit to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod, on 30 September 2003. The blog element of the website has gone through several iterations since, with much of the older material still available.

Like so many things in my life, blog entries blur the boundaries between the personal and the professional. As explained on this site’s Home Page, the website and the blog are part platform for ongoing projects, part autobiography, and part accountability mechanism.

In addition, my blogs have appeared on many sites such as: Chinadialogue, CSRWire, Fast Company, GreenBiz, Guardian Sustainable Business, and the Harvard Business Review.

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About

John Elkington is a world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development. He is currently Founding Partner and Executive Chairman of Volans, a future-focused business working at the intersection of the sustainability, entrepreneurship and innovation movements.

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john@johnelkington.com  |  +44 203 701 7550 | Twitter: @volansjohn

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