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Public Forest Estate (England)

It is a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Manchester, Withington (Mr Leech), who, along with the hon. Member for Hexham (Guy Opperman), has laid out some of the problems confronting the Government's proposals. It is a source of legitimate confusion that a party whose new symbol is the oak tree is involved in this extraordinary sell-off of our forests. It was chosen as a symbol of the Tories' newly discovered environmentalism, belief in British strength and protection of our heritage, but that all seems a long time ago now. The Government seem to have been taken by surprise at the outburst of concern about their proposals. I think it was Harold Macmillan who said:"““First of all the Georgian silver goes. And then all that nice furniture that used to be in the salon. Then the Canalettos go.””" This Government have surpassed Mrs Thatcher and are now selling the wood that built the furniture that was in the salon. In my view it is a grave error, for which there is no support or mandate.