No, not at all. But then the FC's record on biodiversity is not great either. I know that they have done some good things recently, but to be honest and IMHO, in the grand scheme of things they are still playing catch up. Vast areas of our landscape are still scarred with ill conceived "for profit" forests that swallowed up some of our rarest habitats.
Some of the better forests are actually in private ownership. The fact is we can't get in there to see how good they are, but does that make them bad? Just because disgruntled of Tunbridge Wells can't walk their dog in Lord Melchett's estate doesn't make it a bad thing. Likewise, i think that public access is a great thing and should be cherished. I just feel that some issues have got muddled and confused with this highly emotional proposal.
Couldn't have put that better myself.
Am also rather dismayed by how many people are quick off the mark to damn any suggestion the current adminstration makes as automatically bad and all about dirty, filthy capitalism just because it's the Tories, and that's what they do, right?
Whereas of course the other parties at large in UK politics in recent times, the (supposedly) working class parties, have such an exemplary record on all things environmental...
I give you Tony Blair's consistent use of greenwash to burnish his administration's record (and his own image); and the Labour government's abject failure to match Blair's rhetoric with on-the-ground results. Even Jonathan Porritt eventually turned on him.
Or Alex Salmond's presiding over the imminent destruction of the fabulous dune systems near Aberdeen, over-riding all reasoned environmental objections in pursuit of Donald Trump's honeyed (or should that be syrup'd?
) promises of vast economic benefit to Scotland.
No political party that's held power in the UK in recent decades has singularly shone as custodians or exponents of the environment. They all have bad (and some good) moments. The issues are rarely as black and white as people like to think they are. Take agri-environment policy as an example...
Point is, it's easy to criticise a political proposal and stereotype the men and women behind it. But being dispassionate, was the suggestion to put forests into private ownership (and often with stringent strings attached) actually such a very bad idea?
ce
