Save Our Forests

[Capo]

On the BBC news this morning, the government is planning to sell off our forests to private concerns, can you imagine whats going to happen to them.
This is worse than Gordon Brown selling off all our gold.

Please sign the petition here http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/save-our-forests

[utopia]

Signed.
Wonder what they could get for sixty-odd million souls ?????

[bex]

Signed. Morons.

[jerry]

The politicians should be hung from the trees as a warning !

[Char]

The politicians should be hung from the trees as a warning !

Signed & Ditto!

[Dookbob]

I saw the same news cast on TV, I couldn,t believe it, I didn,t think any one could do that. Surely if the british people cant build on this land , then no one can sell it off. Here we are creating a "National Forest" and this scandalous crap is being muted. Anyway apart from signing the petition I did my bit to protest, I threw 2 tea towels and one washing up sponge at the tele, complete with verbal abuse of course.

[uksurfer]

thats terrible, hands off my forest !!

signed and shared

[rollo22]

What will they think of next to sell off.
oh have signed

[Gadget]

I have signed and forwarded.
This lot are wasting no time in selling off what little family silver there is left.
Disgraceful that they are even considering doing it.

[cosmicknome]

Sighed, it seems the specter the traitor thatcher is still at large.

[Nickj]

We've already had a few public meetings here (the forest is literally just outside where I live), our local MP declined to attend and is sticking to the party line that it will be good for us and the UK ~
The whole idea is self off the few reamining nationally owned assets, you get the chance to buy some woods and own what you own already???
Watch out for the NHS contracting down to care of all the crap and impossibly expensive stuff that the private health care systems don't and won't touch.

Got no faith in a system populated almost entirely by the privately educated who don't have the faintest idea of the real problems us proles have.

[Robot]

Our forests !!!!
Done!!!

[pegboy]

Done Signed

[Scott1]

Good shout, signed. I think DEFRA are starting to sell woodland soon, shocking.

[Chris & Nean]

Loggers will move in on it first, then parts of the raped forests will be set aside for golf courses and Theme-Parks, any remaining woodland will be fenced off and public access denied. Finally up market housing with gated and guarded access roads will be created for the very rich.

Everyone who can afford it will want to live there.

[DaffyDuc]

Done - more family silver being sold off, next we'll be taxed on the oxygen the remaining public green spaces produce.

[Diego]

so wrong!

signed.

[Quantox]

Signed and circulated the link. An atrocious proposal, hang the originator from a tree.

Q

[He11cat]

Signed.. We still have commoners and grazing rights that will be destroyed.
I dread to think what they would do with the land!
This country is a joke at the moment!
They will be scrapping the word "Great" soon:(

I dread to think what this country will be like in 20 years time..
And the fat cats get fatter lazing in their untouchable tax havens :(

health service shot to.. Unemployment up..
This little Island is sinking rapidly.

[Capo]

They will be scrapping the word "Great" soon
No that would be selling not scrapping

[He11cat]

True... probably on ebay under Cammy666 ...

mind you... scrapping all those Nimrods behind a giant sheet...... and Ark Royal....

We will all have to go on Dads Army training soon as our defenses will all be owned by Steptoe and Son.

[gremlin]

Signed, although I have been listening to debates about it and there is good and ill on both sides. If the guarentees for public access are put in place I doubt it will be any different to now, after all the forestry commision cut down and sell trees, you only have to go to Thetford to see the mess they leave behind when they've cut down a huge block and nobody moans about that. As long as there is free access and the woodland is managed properly we should still be ok.
As for the debacle over aircraft carriers I'm afraid that was put in place by the last lot, but I guess as this lot are in trying to clean up the mess left by the last lot it's ok to moan about them. If I remember last year people were moaning about the state of the country and what a mess it was and how awful everything was at about this time, governments change but our moaning doesn't.

[He11cat]

The mess is due to several goverments of both parties over a period of years...

Us Brits like a good moan but sadly unlike other places don't get off our asses and do anything :(

Cutting our defenses is utter madness as far as I am concerned.

[Capo]

If the guarentees for public access are put in place.

I would not trust the government on that one, once the deals are done that will go out of the window.

In fact I don't trust anything the politicians have to say, their track record speaks for itself.

Thetford was planted after the first world war to provide timber for industry, as distinct from the remaining forests such as sherwood.

[Darkness]

Signed, although I have been listening to debates about it and there is good and ill on both sides. If the guarentees for public access are put in place I doubt it will be any different to now, after all the forestry commision cut down and sell trees, you only have to go to Thetford to see the mess they leave behind when they've cut down a huge block and nobody moans about that. As long as there is free access and the woodland is managed properly we should still be ok.
As for the debacle over aircraft carriers I'm afraid that was put in place by the last lot, but I guess as this lot are in trying to clean up the mess left by the last lot it's ok to moan about them. If I remember last year people were moaning about the state of the country and what a mess it was and how awful everything was at about this time, governments change but our moaning doesn't.

It's not just me then....

I can't see why it matters whether 20% of the trees are nationalised or de-nationalised: it's the planning constraints, wildlife habitat conservation and pubic access [often mutually exclusive] that matter.

I'm also pleased to see that HMS Victory is being retained as a warship, though probably best that it doesn't see much active service now!

:spin::spin:

[JerryT]

Signed.

I'm stunned they can even think of doing this. Was this in any election manifestos or ever discussed openly before now? Naturally we're all free to buy it ourselves aren't we? I doubt it, in practice. The only benefit will be to rich private individuals and corporations. I wouldn't trust any so-called guarantees as far as I could throw an MP. I believe it'll be like when the last government sold all the school playing fields off to developers. They can't get them back now can they? The schools themselves would never have done it.

We all make mistakes but it takes a Government to really screw things up on a big scale.

:thumbsdown:

[He11cat]

I would like to hand over the word "Great" now to the Aussies.

They have just had a national disaster and look at them!
Pm Julia Gillard seems to be very open and honest and sincere.
They have announced they are going to up tax's to sort the aftermath up
but
1. Low-income earners will not pay the levy. The levy only applies to income above $50,000.
2. The levy will not apply to victims of the floods. People in flood affected areas who have received the Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment this financial year will be exempt from the levy.
3. The levy will only apply for the 2011-2012 financial year and will raise $1.8 billion.
4. A teacher earning $65,000 will pay $1.44 per week for the levy. You can calculate how the levy will affect you here.
5. A lawyer earning $95,000 will pay $4.33 per week for the levy.

I think thats reasonable and I really don't think the Aussies will complain as they safeguard Australia so well!

They are a proud nation have Australia day.. and have national pride.

Uk . we are getting hammered and for what .. stuffs being sold and for what may I ask?
Because we get hammered left right and centre and I am sorry has this country improved any??? Nope.
Do we safeguard our country .. nope.
We are told we have no money our ecoconomy is in dire straights but every Tom **** and Harry comes to us cap in hand when things go wrong with their country and we bail them out.

They wonder why people are getting sick of it.
Its not being racist but we want the best for our nation and it seems like we will help everyone but our own bloody country!

Australia are tough on who goes in and what goes in (flora and fauna as well!) they don't mess about. ok have had issues in the past and maybe still do in some areas don't we all.. But they are protective and proud of the land they live in..They care.

Our Pm's seem to all be snidey little weasles you can't trust and if a nuclear bomb went off do you reckon they would shed a tear .. nope ..be on a plane out of here!
Their Pm looked like she really gave a dam and was clearly upset and it showed!

We have no pride in our land .. if people saw an improvement and things being sorted they don't mind dipping into pockets so much for the good of the country.

Sadly as nice as it is we are a soft touch.
We suffer for it..
Australia got to hand it to you you have the right idea!!..

I don't care if people think thats harsh .. right wing or whatever its not .. and in ten years time things will be worse.. the rot has set in and sadly I can't see us getting off are arses and stamping our feet saying enough is enough...it is a case of will the last person to leave turn the light off and that won't be anyone in goverment.

My friend went to Oz he worked his arse off to get in and has never looked back.
The quality of life is so different and better he even laughs at us now.

Good on you Julia Gillard can you come and kick our goverments arses please!?


DFRA... oh another rof my favs I have to deal with :)

[Chris & Nean]

Its bamboozling: we scrap Nimrod so now we cant ‘hear’ the world, we dump the BBC World Service and now we cant speak to the world, we wont even be a green and pleasant land without the forests. And it’s all to save tupence ha'penny, its more than bamboozling its bloody disturbing. What the hell is going on?

[gremlin]

Don't know if anyone watched Newsnight last night but there was a bit about the sell off. Apparantly the last lot sold a whole lot off in 2009 but they obviously kept it quiet. The Scots stopped their forests being sold at the same time after it was made public. It makes me wonder how much has already been sold off out the back door. They were saying about how much commercial logging is done and how it was discussed last night it seems that it will be those forests that are being logged now will be the prime targets, not the ancient woodlands such as the New Forest, Forest of Dean, Sherwood etc. How much of Sherwood was sold off to accomodate Centre Parcs anyway, I bet that was a chunk if the one at Elvedon is anything to go by. It seems to me that whatever this government do to try to get us out of the mess we're in is going to be damned.
Everyone seems to be looking at the last lot with rose tinted specs, they were going to scrap our ships, they were the ones who'd made the cock up with the aircraft carriers but this lot are getting the blame for it.
They were going to make huge cuts, sell off national treasures and they were the ones who got us into this state in the first place. It was the last lot who got us into the wars we're fighting at huge cost to the economy and caused so many unnecessary deaths, they also are the ones who made this country a prime target for any Tom, **** or Harry wanting a free lunch. I wish people would stop moaning and get on with it, lifes a bitch accept it.
Rant over

[He11cat]

They are all as bad as each other.....lining their own pockets, what ever party gets in they do as they please... its all lies ..
Screaming Lord Such probably could have done a better job of it after all (if was alive ) :) all of them are a bunch of clowns as far as I am concerned.

That poor woman 6 hours respite a week from caring for her daughter 24/7 and they wonder why people keep ending their sick childrens lifes then take their own... thats why.. no services , no money...
broken promises. I work with it everyday, I see it ... its sick. Thats a highlighted case and for that one case there are thousands living like that and worse in silence ... even children caring for their parents with no support.

I really hope people do start kicking off..
"Off with their heads all of them" as far as I am concerned .... no no no Gremlin I loves you but thats the problem !!
We roll over and accept it... thats where its all wrong.... This country is full of ... not my problem .. doesn't effect me .. oh it will one by one.. nuff said ..

Miss points of view sick of the system signing out :) and no I don't want to go to centre parks grrrrrr

[Chris & Nean]

Whatever the last lot did whether good or bad its done now, but any government’s first duty is to ensure the security of the nation. This current lot are jeopardising our security: carriers, jump jets, Arial surveillance systems all binned: then they take away our niceties like the forests! What’s next? I get the feeling it’s a punishment being dealt out to the electorate for not voting Tory 4 times on the trot. Seems as voters we don’t deserve forests or security.

[uksurfer]

it was on the news i think last night and this morning, just got to find somewhere else to walk the dog, and ride my bike, i'm crap at golf :thumbsdown:

[Rally]

Signed and disgusted by the shear thought of those people doing such a disgraceful thing. We have too many golf courses now, let alone theme parks. What we want is what we have, open spaces where we can have a barbie, a few beers, camp, ride our bikes, watch the wildlife and enjoy tranquility.

I'm with you on this one Hellcat.

[He11cat]

x thank you :) bad grumpy Hellcat...

[Albie]

I have signed. I love forests :thumbsup:

[Chris & Nean]

I was reading up on that Nimrod maritime reconnaissance system and it turns out that the things a load off rubbish.

The plane it’s based on is 50 years old, they where coach built form blueprints back in the days before CAD and everything in them is inaccurate and spare parts for them have to be hand made one off’s and that’s after the airframes were all remanufactured. If the project had been completed each of the 9 plane’s would have cost five hundred millions and the running costs would have been stupendous.

Boing offer an up and running alternative named the P-8 costing 160 millions apiece and running costs are realistic. The Tories initiated the Nimrod project back in the early 90’s and supposedly it was intended to create jobs, what a waste and why didn’t Labour scrap the damn thing years ago?

People on the forums I sourced this information from speak of strains of TSR2 debacle, so on and on it goes, but if we scrap the forests we will never get them back.

[Nickj]

People on the forums I sourced this information from speak of strains of TSR2 debacle.

Nimrod might be good, might be bad. Depends what you're after and we were after a primary role maritime recon plane. The american replacement isn't quite the same.

TSR2, now that was an interesting one, as was said at the time "All modern aircraft have four dimensions: span, length, height and politics. TSR-2 simply got the first three right.!".
When it was scrapped the plan was to get the F111 which at the time had an early prototype flying, unlike TSR2 which had a pre-production version tested and flying. TSR2 had an avionics package that the replacement F111 matched when it got to the D version some 12 years later.
However we didn't actually get in the F111 in the end just as well as the F111 itself wasn't available for 10 years later.
Oh BTW the Australians were going to buy TSR2's but we were undercut by General Dynamics courtesy of a large wodge of US government money. Laugh was on the Aussies as they had to wait over 10 years to get the planes.
So we bought the Phantom which was a stop gap till the Tornado's came into service where the politics were right even if the plane itself wasn't.

The logic behind politics isn't logical or sensible, it is capricious and often very random. Eg Local MP campaigned vigoursly against the Forest of Dean being listed as an ANOB, he also is very pro the forestry sell off. Different things at different times but with a common strand that leaves a slight whiff of rat in the air.
One local concern is that there is reclaimable coal here, not viable unless you do a little strip mining. Now that would make the forest around here an investment if you wait for 10 or so years.