According to the article at the BBC, there is going to be a joint action by Defra, the Forestry Commission, the Woodland Trust, Trees for Cities, the Tree Council, the London Tree and Woodland Community Grant, Civic Voice, NHS Forests, Keep Britain Tidy, the More Trees More Good campaign and The Big Tree Plant to get more trees planted.
Or possibly, it'll be a couple of Polish blokes in donkey jackets.
Two Birds, One Stone!
24 minutes ago
9 comments:
NHS Forests?
Seriously - WTF?
Here's their website:
http://nhsforest.org/
And (some) lefties go on about how every penny spent by the state is essential, cut a farthing from any budgets and babies will be thrown to the wolves etc etc.
I've had enough of this shit - my plan to leave the UK (in January) looks ever more sensible.
followed a link on their top menu bar and it takes you here:
http://www.carbonaddict.org/
Sample quotes:
"It has come to the attention of the health profession that common usage patterns of carbon-based fuels bear all the hallmarks of a substance dependence syndrome."
"Misdirected attempts to fulfil non-material needs (e.g. companionship) by carbon-intensive material means (e.g. purchase of a new iPod)."
Carbon use apparently makes us unwell. I just want these people to fuck off and stop wasting our money
K McC, I sincerely hope that you are making that up. I shall refrain from following the links because you probably aren't.
Sadly it's all for real.
The Carbon Addict one is all delivered in jokey joshing tones, but they are deadly serious: we have to stop using carbon because the NHS filled a billion prescriptions for anti-depressants last week.
(I can't remember the exact number of prescriptions filled, and I can't bear having to go and look at the site again, but that is one of the points they make: depression medications are being prescribed in huge amounts and therefore we need to stop eating meat/keeping warm/driving to work. Those three are all signs, incidentally, of Carbon Addiction. I'm not making this up. It's too depressing and infuriating for words.)
ah - my second comment seems to have been vanished. It pointed towards this pile of steaming crap, linked prominently by NHS Forests:
http://www.carbonaddict.org/
My money's on the Poles.
KMcC, your second comment (re Carbonaddict) appeared, but then it went into the bloody spam queue, whence I have retrieved it, so hopefully it's now visible again.
JH, ha! My money's on the local Elfin Safety coming round and telling the Poles that they don't have the required permits to plant trees, and certainly not there.
S, a) is the object of the exercise, b) is window-dressing. I think we'll be lucky to get any b) at all.
All the government needs to do is to give people money for planting trees. You own land, you plant a tree/trees, an official inspects it/them, you get money. Simple.
This is not happening, therefore planting trees is not the object of the exercise.
S, 100-to-1, sounds about right.
B, as it happens, the government DOES give people money for planting trees. Income from forestry is exempt from income tax and forestry land is exempt from IHT, plus a smidge of CAP-style subsidies for good measure (these rules have been in place for a few decades). As a result of which, the % of the UK covered in trees has doubled or something (from 4% to 8% or whatever).
The tricky bit is that nobody SEES these trees, what we want to see (or what politicians have told us we want to see) is more trees in urban and suburban areas, but they play havoc with the drains and foundations, so we want to see them anywhere except in the pavement next to our house.
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