20th March 2011, 07:43 PM
The 38 Degrees campaign had something solid and popular to work for. You'll note that nobody asked "Are you willing to have taxpayers' money spent on maintaining the forests that remain in State ownership?" because the answer might have been quite different.
If somebody suggested bulldozing Stonehenge, we could mount a 38 Degrees-style campaign against it and win handsomely. We're not really dealing with the same type of issue.
And that's ignoring the fact that the government have already flogged off a lot of the forests that were in State ownership anyway. Suddenly playing it up felt rather like a diversionary tactic to me. Wonder what we weren't supposed to be noticing, that slipped under the radar whilst the hoohah about trees was going on? Perhaps I'm being overly cynical...
I know someone who's a senior Civil Servant and they confirm that cuts are just being made across the board with very little prior consideration. Much of what they're instructed to do is illegal and they spend quite a bit of time patiently explaining legislation and statutory responsibilities to ministers. Basically, it's cut first and see who yells about it later. If you can find a particularly weak constituency, then it's a natural target.
If somebody suggested bulldozing Stonehenge, we could mount a 38 Degrees-style campaign against it and win handsomely. We're not really dealing with the same type of issue.
And that's ignoring the fact that the government have already flogged off a lot of the forests that were in State ownership anyway. Suddenly playing it up felt rather like a diversionary tactic to me. Wonder what we weren't supposed to be noticing, that slipped under the radar whilst the hoohah about trees was going on? Perhaps I'm being overly cynical...
I know someone who's a senior Civil Servant and they confirm that cuts are just being made across the board with very little prior consideration. Much of what they're instructed to do is illegal and they spend quite a bit of time patiently explaining legislation and statutory responsibilities to ministers. Basically, it's cut first and see who yells about it later. If you can find a particularly weak constituency, then it's a natural target.