Home | Friday 18th February 2011 | Issue 759
COMMISSION ACCOMPLISHED
IT WUZ THE SCHNEWS WOT WON IT:
After (as a direct result of, probably) SchNEWS’ exclusive (kinda) exposure of plans to flog off the nation’s publicly owned forests (see SchNEWS 754), the coalition’s public spending shears were blunted for once when Cameron and co were forced into an embarrassing climbdown.
Following a campaign organised by a broad coalition of nature lovers, the government realised that just about the only people in favour of the policy were the moneybags developers rubbing their hands at the prospect of snapping up woodlands for themselves. The idea was so unpopular, even amorphous political blob Ed Millbland managed to score political points out of it, cornering Cameron at PM’s questions. One No. 10 insider said: “It’s a cock-up. We just did not think.” Just for a change, then.
With her tail firmly positioned between her legs, environment minister Caroline Spelman announced an end to the the consultation on plans to dispose of the land in England run by the Forestry Commission, drop clauses in the public bodies bill that would allow the government to sell off all of England’s forests and establish an independent panel with environmentalists to reach consensus on reforms to improve access and biodiversity in forests.
A victory for people power then, now to tackling the savaging of education, welfare, the NHS, legal aid, libraries...
