Selling The Forests

This is a bad idea. Small government does not mean the State has no role, nor that it should not have assets. The Thatcher revolution which brought about the privatisation of state enterprise was a very good idea, but like many good ideas, it lacked the judgement to know when to stop. Thus we ended up with Spanish airports and water, French power generation and so on. Some things work better, a good many do not.

There is no more fundamental national asset than the land we tread in common, nor more environmentally useful organisation than the Forestry Commission. Neither must be touched. We have many good things in our national fabric and we must leave well alone. The Archbishop of Canterbury leads the protest. His leadership is timely.

The Tory element of this Coalition needs to reign in on those who want reform for its own, or some ideological, reason. So much of our country is bust and dysfunctional, they have more than enough to get on with. Remember the global financial crash had its origins in Tory ideas. It would be bad politics to hand Labour an opportunity to attack on that front. Andy Coulson, Cameron’s erstwhile ear of the people, would agree.

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