MARK Harper's discomfort when he was asked if the current Forestry consultation document was a Green Paper or a White Paper was palpable. Having promised his constituents full consultation once the White Paper was published he didn't have the spunk to admit that the consultation document was neither.
The normal process of Green Paper followed by White Paper followed by Bill has been shamefully ignored.
Instead, the Public Bodies Bill currently being debated in Parliament, with no preceding Green or White Paper, will give ministers the power to do what they want with England's public forest estate.
It will remove the special protection currently afforded to the Forest of Dean. The results of the consultation may inform or influence minister's decisions, but that is all.
Already, Caroline Spelman, the Secretary of State for the Environment has been forced by public pressure to concede that the Public Bodies Bill, as currently drafted, will have to be amended to protect the so-called "heritage forests", but we are yet to see a draft of that amendment.
Mark Harper MP was sent to Parliament by his electorate to be their legislator.
He has consistently refused to meet his constituents to discuss the legislation, ie the Public Bodies Bill, even though it has been in the public domain since October 2010.
Coupled to this, he asserted that as a minister he was not allowed to speak in parliamentary debates on any issue, including the recent forestry debate, which is not within his portfolio.
It appears we have an MP for the Forest of Dean who refuses to discuss current legislation with his constituents and can't speak up in parliament on forestry issues.
Is it any wonder he is now held in contempt by so many of his previous supporters?
Coun Bruce Hogan
Labour and Co-operative Lydbrook and Mitcheldean
Labour leader FODDC