Family trees

How Rachel Johnson became the voice of Britain’s forests

Clueless, aimless, rudderless, directionless. Labour’s disarray has left the task of holding the government to account in the hands of volunteers and publicity-seekers. The result is pop-up opposition, scrutiny by happening. Groups of protestors coalesce around a famous figurehead and raise merry hell until the coalition gives them what they want. Joanna Lumley established the format with her spirited campaign for the Gurkhas. The latest blonde bombshell to enter the lists — it seems to help if you have a flaxen mane — is Rachel Johnson, president of Save England’s Forests. The campaign seeks to amend the Public Bodies Bill (currently subject to ‘consultation’), and prevent the government from disposing of the nation’s woodlands on the open market.

Ms Johnson’s club boasts some imposing names. The biggest hitter is the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, a man worth listening to on woodlands, and not just because it looks as if he cohabits with a family of elves in a pine-strewn grotto. He’s also named after a tree. Amiable beardies like David Bellamy and Bill Bryson add depth to the team sheet. Tracey Emin offers chaotic glamour and Judi Dench matronly gravitas, while Julian Barnes brings a hint of intellectual class. Ms Johnson has even persuaded her reclusive father, Stanley Johnson, to break a lifetime’s silence and pen a few thousand words on the topic.

The atmosphere of the campaign is pragmatic, professional and faintly bossy. Every category of woodland user has been recruited: ramblers, cyclists, horse-riders, dog-walkers, bird-watchers, bark-rubbers, gatherers of wild herbs and mushrooms. The only forest-goers omitted so far are buriers of midnight corpses. When I added my name to the 158,000-strong petition I quickly discovered that mere membership was not enough.