woods (credit: saragoldsmith)
The coalition government has demonstrated that it’s new style of open government is working by listening to people. It’s just been announced that there is no need for the full 12 weeks consultation. The public have spoken clearly so plans to sell off Forestry Commission lands will be cancelled.
Forestry sell off allowance.
This decision related only to the big sell off of woods and forests and does not include the 15% of Forestry Commission lands that the government is permitted to sell off in every 4 year period. As the coalition government is committed to a 5 year period of governance it means that it can sell two blocks of 15% in it’s lifetime. That’s still a major amount of woodland cover that this government can dispose of in it’s term of office.
Fortunately the government has put that sell off on hold also while it reconsiders the amount of protection that can be given to the forest sell off. The government could be looking at ways to strengthen access rights and wildlife protection before recommencing the gradual sell off programme that was begun under the last Labour government.
‘Out of touch’ or responsive government.
The Labour Party has claimed that this change of policy shows the government to be ‘incompetent’ and ‘out of touch’ – this, of course, is a complete lie. A strong open and democratic government will listen to the voters throughout it’s period of office. The change of policy demonstrates a strong government who listens to the people and is responsive to the will of the people. This is in stark contrast to the ‘policy before people’ doctrine that was run by the ex-labour government.
If you want to see the impacts of a government that was ‘incompetant’ and ‘out of touch’ you only have to look at the last Labour government policy on the NHS. Despite now having some of the highest paid nurses and doctors in the developed world we have some of the poorest outcomes for heart disease, cancer and strokes. The recently published report shows that even though we pay our nurses some of the highest wages in the developed world they treat the older patients with utter contempt. Labour’s failed doctrine of forcing policies on people and throwing money around is seen in a lot of other areas as well from the biggest housing crises in modern history through to falling educational standards when compared to the rest of the developed world – despite having some of the best paid teachers in the world.
It’s good to see that we now have a government that is willing to listen and respond to the real concerns of people in the country. The coalition government may have a lot going against it but being incompetent and out of touch are not things that can be laid against it.
Wrong type of privatisation for Forestry Commission?
The big question for me though is how did the government fail so badly in attempting to sell off the forests? Don’t get me wrong, I do not support the sell off of the woods and forests. I don’t think that the government should even be able to dispose of 15% in each 4 year period. The Forestry Commission should be able to sell and buy land – that is part of a living dynamic forestry economy – but their land bank should at least remain static in total size.
Was the government doomed to failure by trying to sell off the forests and woodlands? I don’t think it was necessarily doomed to failure, the government has previously sold off much larger tracts of land that was important to wildlife. The estates of the Forestry Commission is smaller than the estates of land that were owned by the water authorities before they were privatised. Public access and wildlife were important arguments used by the opponents of the forest sell off, but they were also used by opponents of the water board sell offs. The privatisation of the water boards were successful though.
For me the big reason why this sell off failed was because this was not the popular capitalism undertaken by Mrs Thatcher during the big privatisations but a grubby little private deal to satisfy the friends and family of Cameron and Clegg who wanted to own forests and woodlands to evade paying taxes.
The question has to be asked – had the government followed the popular capitalism of the Thatcher era and floated the Forestry Commission as a public company that everyone could apply to own shares of, would the privatisation been so opposed?
This attempt to fast-track the sale of individual plots of land to only those who had the money to afford to buy alienated a lot of people. Add to that the very substantial tax advantages that owning forests and woodlands bring to the wealthy while the rest of us are being taxed and squeezed and you are fighting a losing battle.
Government lacks populist touch.
One of the problems with this current government is that it does not have the populist touch. The ministerial benches are filled with millionaires and landed gentry – both Tory and Libdem – they don’t have the same understanding of the public that previous Tory governments had. Margret Thatcher understood the aspirations of the British public. She understood the desires that most people have to better themselves and their families. Popular capitalism is ready to re-emerge again after 20 years of Labour government which has overseen an ending of social mobility and the development of an underclass in Britain, but we need a government who understand popular capitalism which this current front bench doesn’t.
Instead of rushing ahead and looking after ‘their own’ with the selling off of forests and their wildlife the government should have started by making the arguments for privatisation and then once the arguments had been won the Forestry Commission should have been floated with the public having first option at buying shares in the company.
Offering shares to the public in a privatisation would not have guaranteed that at some stage in the future land would not have been sold. Seven Trent water is currently in the process of selling off 23,000 acres of heathland, forests and farmland around Lake Vyrnwy in Wales. The privatisation of the water companies hasn’t guaranteed the future of wildlife and nature – neither would the public flotation of the Forestry Commission. The difference though is that a public flotation could have been more acceptable to the general public than the break up and selling off of forests to the very wealthy. The very wealthy has done extremely well under the Labour government and now control a higher percentage of the nations wealth than they did under the last Tory government.
Fortunately this is all ‘what if …’ the government has decided to cancel the sale of keep the forests in public ownership and that is good news. As an aside we also now know that we have a government who is prepared to listen and respond to the concerns of the public and that has to be positive news – a return of consensus democratic governance to Britain.
