TO me the most remarkable result in the election of the District Council was the victory of Jane Horne at Tibberton by 639 votes to 191.

I know Councillor Horne as a former colleague and I have no doubt she deserves her popularity and will continue to be an effective member of the council.

At the same time Baroness Royall has the experience of leading the House of Lords and is highly regarded by highly successful people, ministers, bishops, writers, chief executives, generals with a sprinkling of the descendants of 17 illegitimate children of Charles II.

Her comment in defeat was: "This is democracy, I must try harder."

I make no criticism of the voters of Tibberton but we need Baroness Royall, as well, as one who, with a lot of help, saved for the time being the Forest from the "developers".

I for one was proud to march in the column she led and more than anyone else her deep knowledge of the workings of Parliament enabled her to shred the Government's incompetent first attempt to sell off our state-owned forests at the flick of the minister's pen.

But the savage cut in funding, to the Forestry Commission and the consequent dismissal of hundreds of professional foresters is disturbing. If a board of any enterprise decides to sell it to the highest bidder it is a common tactic to reduce the workforce even if they are essential, so as to make a bid more attractive by allowing the new management to replace them with employees paid less, for worse working conditions, less security and inferior pensions. Privatisation is about the few profiting at the expense of the many and providing a poorer service for all of us.

I am amazed that the Archbishop of Canterbury has been brave enough to condemn Government policy. Cameron's parrot cry of our need for a "Big Society" where everyone is encouraged to give a bit more is insulting. I have been fortunate to travel and study many countries and I have never come across one that remotely approaches the number in the UK who give so much of their free time to community projects without thought of reward or give so generously to a multitude of charities voluntarily. As an example as part of my last job I managed to secure the exchange of 15 secondary schools in Surrey with the same number of schools around Aarhus in Denmark living in each other's homes for a week. I invited the guy who was their adviser to join me on a Saturday when I had a coach with 40 teachers visiting a highly successful educational farm.

He said: "How much do you pay them for giving up their time?"

He was stunned when I informed him that in this country teachers give days and weeks extra-murally on visits without a thought of being paid. And certainly as a former School Inspector I have observed vast numbers of teachers working for much longer and harder than is required by their contracts.

Mind you, I believe that the Danish school system is superior to ours. Their community schools are really that, and have been going for about a century. When I asked my County Hall for some evidence of community working in Surrey all they could find was a slip of paper describing how at weekends one school allowed its local football team to use its changing room. Denmark has three per cent of children below the poverty line, we have 30 per cent.

The Danes have a better educational system, get better results because they have a formidable union. We have countless outstanding and committed teachers but suffer privately educated politicians who in the main have no experience of the state system, have never taught a lesson and would be ashamed to put their own children through it. Democracy here is by the privileged, with the privileged, for the privileged. But we desperately need Baroness Royall and people of her calibre to defend our priorities in subjects like forests and children.

Roger Horsfield

Bream