Monday 7 February 2011

This is important

I know that this blog is mainly about my writing (though a fair bit of family stuff seems to get on here, plus odds and ends I find interesting) but once in a while, something crops up that people need to know about.

From the Guardian -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/27/england-forest-sell-off-activism

Plans to sell 258,000 hectares (637,000 acres) of English forest for up to £250m have met with huge opposition from communities and environmental groups. In the biggest change of English land ownership in 80 years, the public will be asked to raise tens of millions of pounds to buy and manage forests or see them go to commercial organisations on 150-year leases.MPs recently voted on this issue and, I'll be honest, it's quite a shameful experience to see how they went. Would they stand up and be counted and say no, fuck off, these forests and woodland belong to England, to the people of this fair land, it's part of our heritage? Or would they go along and vote to sell it off, to the highest bidder? And when those highest bidders turned out to be people who'd like to perhaps, oh I don't know, raze said woodland to the ground, what happens then?

There's a website, called 38 Degrees
(direct link here) where you can find out just how your MP voted. And then get in touch with him.

My local MP is Philip Hollobone. He didn't vote to save our forests. I've emailed him, asking him what motivated him in his decision, inviting him to email me back to let me know. And you know what? If he doesn't respond, I'll go to the local paper.

This is our heritage, people - we have to defend it!
Find out how your MP voted - click here

1 comment:

  1. Good one, Mark! It needs doing. My local MP actually voted to save the forests, so this is possibly the first time I'm pleased to be represented by Hazel Blears...

    ReplyDelete