Housmans Blog

Here’s a message from campaign group 38 Degrees. I would add that though the proposals for selling off public forests (what precious few we have left) include safeguards in regards to what can be done with the land, it is nonetheless a  sell-off of common land, and in my opinion has to be stopped on principle.

“The government is getting ready for a huge sell-off of our national forests to private firms. They could be auctioned and fenced off, run down, logged or turned into golf courses and holiday villages. [1]

We need to stop these plans. Ancient forests like the Forest of Dean and Sherwood Forest are national treasures – once they’re gone, they are lost forever. A huge petition will force the government to rethink. Already 80,000 of us have signed the “save our forests” petition. Can you help get the petition to 100,000 by Christmas? If we can prove how strongly thousands of us are against this, we can make them back down.

Please click here to add your name to the “save our forests” petition
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/save-our-forests

The government needs to push new laws through Parliament before these plans can go ahead. That means we have time to stop them. If we build a huge petition, we will prove that the public doesn’t want precious woodland to be flogged off to the highest bidder. That will make MPs think twice about voting for it.

When we work together, we can stop the government from forcing through these kind of bad plans. They probably think that with all the focus on cuts, no-one will have time spare to speak up for forests. But already we’re proving them wrong. 80,000 of us have signed the “save our forests” petition.

38 Degrees members know how to work on more than one issue at once. We’re already standing up for the NHS and the BBC. We’re winning our fight against the massive cow factory farm in Lincolnshire. Now let’s stand up for Britain’s forests together, before it’s too late and they’re gone for good.

Please help build the pressure before it’s too late. Add your name to the “save our forests” petition now – it takes just 1 minute:
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/save-our-forests

Thanks for being involved,

David, Hannah, Johnny and the 38 Degrees team

P.S. Last week thousands of us chipped in the £20,000 needed to get our George Osborne “artful dodger” ads splashed across the papers on the day VAT goes up. Thanks to everyone that chipped in. Together we’re shining a spotlight on George Osborne’s tax dodging. We’ll expose how he’s not just dodging his own taxes – he’s dodging the issue altogether and letting billions be dodged every year. Look out for the advert in national papers on January 4th. ”

NOTES
[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/countryside/8082756/Ministers-plan-huge-sell-off-of-Britains-forests.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/government-plans-huge-selloff-of-britains-forests-2115631.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/oct/24/forests-government-heritage-private-developers