A massive failure of communication

I have farmer friends in the Highlands who are forbidden from felling trees in their own backgarden – and, ergo, can’t extent their house. The poor souls have to wait until there’s a windstorm and head out with their chainsaws at 3am to fake the death of trees – and, even then, it’s touch-and-go if they are later caught by the tree coroners.

The regulation of privately-owned trees is extraordinary, which is why the fuss about forests – and yesterday’s climbdown – is such a farce. The government’s decision to postpone the selloff of the treeland estate that it proposed fits a pattern of u-Turns that I wrote about last weekend. But it is, fundamentally, a colossal failure of communication. You get the impression that the government is planning an Avatar-style destruction of mother nature – rather than a consultation about the ownership structure of the remaining chunk of state-owned forests. As Eamonn Butler told us the other day, 82 percent of England’s forest estate – that we all love to explore – is already privately-owned. Stringent laws on access make ownership pretty much irrelevant. Cameron’s government was planning to transfer ownership of just 3 percent of English forest land – and not a single tree was going to be felled. Labour had transferred even more power and no one cared.

Cameron’s mistake was to allow a consultation paper on what to do with the rest of the 18 percent of forestry that the government owned, with no one able to explain the policy – or put it into perspective. And not for the first time, the government was defined by its enemies. This was one of the many policies rushed out for the Budget, and in itself is pretty irrelevant.

But the harm done is the impression that this government can be forced into retreat, with a proper campaign. Lloyd Evans talks about how Rachel Johnson managed it with forests in this week’s magazine. Rachel is a formidable woman, but when she can almost single-handedly defeat the British government it will encourage others. As Rumsfeld said, weakness is more provocative than strength. I do hope this is the last u-Turn for a while. Because as Ted Heath found out, they can be fatal for reforming governments.