Tuesday 18 January 2011

Caroline Spelman - raider of the lost bark

I only caught up with Andy Whightman's Observer piece on the sale of the English Forestry Commission land last night, and well worth the read it is.

I'm sure when Caroline Spelman announced the forestry fire sale her civil servants didn't make her aware that the majority of the Forestry Commission's resources about 443,000 of the hectares, are in Scotland and not under her control.

The Forestry Commission's English estate totals only 258,000ha, with an estimated value of £697m, of which just over 200,000ha is woodland. The commercial forests, the sitka spruce and the like, is almost all in Scotland where there are no plans to sell.

Forest privatisation, academy schools, GP-run health service, minimum alcohol pricing are all happening in England. The devolutionary divide is certainly coming into play in this parliament.

By the way do her plans to sell off the trees mean that Caroline Spelman is the raider of the lost bark?

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