Should The Government Sell Off Our Forests?

[Si Hunt]

This Wednesday there is a crunch vote in Parliament. MPs will vote on a motion demanding a rethink of plans to sell our national forests.

On Wednesday morning, MPs will open the newspapers to see full-page adverts showing the number of people who’ve taken a stand by signing the Save Our Forests petition. The more of us that sign the petition the more pressure MPs will be under.

Right now, the petition is nearly 330,000 strong, and every name counts. So we’re setting a bold new target of half a million people by 5pm on Tuesday in time for the ad printing deadline and Wednesday’s hugely important vote. Will you take a moment to spread the word right now?

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/save-our-forests

So many of us have joined this campaign because we all understand something the government doesn’t seem to get yet: that our woodlands and forests are priceless, and once they’re gone they’re gone forever.

We know that places like the Forest of Dean, the New Forest, Grizedale, Thetford, and Alice Holt are national treasures. We know that they belong to all of us, and we will do whatever we can to keep them in public hands and protect them for future generations.

[Rob McCow]

If private enterprise were to be put in charge of running our national forests, it would be inevitable that would end up charging people to enter, or selling off the land to developers. These forests belong to everyone, they should not be sold off to help the government out of a financial hole.

[Si Hunt]

That said (and I have signed the petition), everyone seems to have opinion on where the money shouldn't come from. But it has to come from somewhere...

Si.

[SiHart]

Close everything. Sell everything.

That way no-one will be happy and we'll live in a miserable, culturally bereft country.

But we won't have a deficit.

Si xx

[Rob McCow]

Well, there are the big companies that evade taxes in the UK - sadly that probably includes a lot of the internet dealers such as Play and Sendit. There were protests about Vodafone evading billions in tax too.

We don't have to pay off the whole debt, which seems to be the aim with the current policies. And how does it make sense to pay it off while the economy is weak, rather than making a few cuts now to keep thing managable and then when the UK economy is recovered, seeing what else needs to be done.

We've spent vast swathes of money on defence (Trident submarine, anyone?) which could be better spent elsewhere. But the real problem is healthcare - the budget for which dwarfs everything else. We're spending a fortune on expensive drugs, licensed by pharmaceutical companies, as well as other healthcare treatments.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11569160

There has to be an alternative to selling everything and removing what social cohesion this country has. I don't know what the best thing to do would be, but I would start by looking at those areas.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

I approve of this thread. Isn't England deforested enough?