WE'RE ALL IN IT TOGETHER

So was the cry we used to hear from every minister, every speech, 10 and more times . (For those of short memory, this was just before the worlds "Big" and "Society" became buzz for the first time. I know it's hard; it changes so often, but do try to keep up.

Anyway.... from the people at the very top, to the scu... I mean the people at the very bottom.

Oh yes. Government ministers were to take public transport and share cars; expenses were to be managed properly and only paid for things they were meant to be paid for; we were ALL going to take our holidays Doon the Watter, and the English would all take theirs in Brighton, Bournemouth or Birmingham.

And it didn’t last a whole week before the idiot Spellman (of Forst W-turns fame) was taking her chauffeur driven car 100 meters down the road, and some prat of a junior minister (whose name completely escapes me now) had taken a personal limo, with chauffeur, abroad, where it is not the done thing to take government cars without permission.

Trains? Buses? You have to be kidding. Not for the likes of the UK government's ministers.

And as I mentioned a few posts ago, despite subjecting himself to the indignities, no tortures, of ChavAir and O’ScallyAir, Cameron has proved, with two foreign holidays in the space of as many months, that he is well above this “holidays in Britain” malarkey designed for the proles. Remember that Cabinet Office ministers made it clear that they didn't want any further extensions to airports which carried the workers on their nasty package holidays... Nice one Olly!

Now we learn that while we have been told that there are either no rises or tiny rise, because the economy, wrecked by the rich, cannot stand it, the fat cats have been filling their boots, and how.

First there is the accusation (made by an ignoble lord) that 85% of lords use the incredibly generous expenses system as a salary, and claim regardless of whether a penny has been spent. And this week we are informed that the top bosses’ salaries were increased by 32%, and the VERY top ones by 86%. Makes your 2% look sick as a parrot, n’est-ce pas?

So you old age pensioners who have lost 25% of your heating money despite heating costs increasing by between 3 and 4 times the fiddled inflation figure; you sick people who have been stripped of your Incapacity Benefit and have to wait for up to a year for your appeal to be heard during which time you may die, as indeed some of you have done; you people who have been made redundant and find that despite paying for 30 or 40 years into the National Insurance Scheme at 10% or 11% of your salary, for just this very eventuality, you are not entitled to a sou in dole money, because your partner has a job... for now.

This is what the rich think of you:

YOU’RE ALL IN IT TOGETHER SUCKERS!

THE DEPT OF THE ENVIRONMENT ENERGISES THE FORESTS WITH A WAVE OF THEIR MAGIC WAND.

The government is going to sell off half the forests in the UK owned by the state and run for the benefit of the public, and the wildlife.

We can expect to see many trees being cut down and use made of the land to create Center Park holiday villages, golf courses, adventure site and commercial logging.

Great! John Major, also in need of money after Mrs Thatcher’s reign tried this too, and it was abandoned after Civil Servants reported that it would be impracticable to do and the public objected to it.

John Major backed down. Cameron won’t, I suspect.

There will be a need to change legislation which currently governs the treatment of "ancient forests" such as the Forest of Dean and Sherwood Forest in England, so that private firms will be able to cut down trees.

Laws governing England's forests were included in the Magna Carta of 1215, and some date back even earlier, so changing them is going to be interesting...for a “conservative” party.

What made me laugh was a quote from someone at the Dept of the Environment, under whose remit this falls: "We are looking to energise our forests by bringing in fresh ideas and investment, and by putting conservation in the hands of local communities."

Energise a forest? WHAT?

No you're not, you nobs. You’re looking to sell it, make money and let them cut the trees down. It will as much of a success as everything else that you do.

Pics: A Scottish Forest. Map of Forestry Commission areas