This is an important step towards widening the environmental movement’s support - Hackney Gazette
The hugecampaign against the privatisation of England’s forests by the Tory-ledGovernment is making a real difference.Toryministers have been wanting to transfer control from the Forestry Commission,which owns 18 per cent of the nation’s woodland, to the private sector,although there have been signs of a retreat, in recent days. Some issues ought to be above party politics;and some things should be beyond privatisation.
This Conservative-led government has already promised to selloff 15% of English woodland, and the Public Bodies Bill gives it the power tosell the rest; more than 1,000 woods in all. This would be the biggest change in English land ownership since thesecond world war.
Over the last fortnight, I have received well over 700 emailsfrom people in Hackney – which is roughly about 50 emails a day – about these plansto sell off 258,000 hectares of our English forests. This shows just how important this issue isto you. Opinion polls show that 84% ofpeople are in favour of our forests staying in public hands for futuregenerations.
I am experienced enough in the Labour Party to remember when greenissues, solar panels and electric vehicles were the purview of activists andhippies. Often, the people who havepreviously written, emailed and lobbied me on the subject of climate change andthe environment have been white and middle class.
Yet Hackney is three-quarters black and ethnic minority, and oneof the poorest in the country. Indeed,Hackney’s voice in this battle, over the last two weeks, has been an importantone. I hope that this fortnight has beena step towards widening the environment movement’s social base, in thelong-term. Rising energy and fuel prices, for example, are affecting everyonebut it is the poorest and those on fixed incomes who are paying the heaviestprice.
To better our environment globally we must start to actlocally. Indeed, walking down the streetin Hackney you are in constant danger of tripping over old mattresses,armchairs or washing machines apparently discarded in the middle of thepavement. It is frustrating because the environment is one of the mostimportant policy issues on the national and international political agendas.There is much talk of climatic change and the irreversible adverseconsequences. But sometimes it all seems very scientific and it can bedifficult to see how we as individuals can make a difference. I hope this weekshows that we can make a difference.
Selling off forests and woodlands is a short-sighted andirresponsible thing for the Tory-led Government to do, and is a policy that hasno public backing. The impact of their loss would continue to ripple forgenerations into the future. That the Government neglected to consult eitherthe local people that actually use these forests or the public at large, is indicativeof the arrogance that exists at the heart of the Tory-led Government. I voted against the sell-off of our publicforests to private interests and I will continue to monitor developments onthis issue very closely as the bill progresses.
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