FOLLOWING the fiasco over the proposed sale of parts of the public Forest estate, can Caroline Spelman's judgement as a Minister ever be trusted again?
She had the lessons of two previous failed attempts and abundant evidence of widespread opposition this time. Even the consultation process was chaotic.
It ended with a humiliating apology to the House and an unsatisfactory admission of having "got it wrong".
Ms Spelman's proposal aimed to strip the Forestry Commission of its traditional role of managing the public Forest estate in England, leaving HMG bereft of an agency capable of applying long-term policy goals at plantation level.
Her 'reform' programme had the potential to increase costs and drastically reduce efficiency.
Defra Minister Jim Paice, was spelling out laudable policy goals from a desk at Nobel House, while his colleague was busy melting down the only credible instrument he had to pursue those goals!
In a Bill designed to reduce the numbers of quangos, Ms Spelman was creating a number of new quasi quangos in the form of Government-funded "charities" to manage the so-called "heritage forests" of England. This function had been very successfully performed prior to this stage for one hundred years by the Forestry Commission.
The Prime Minister attended the recent Cancun Climate Talks, where poorer nations are urged to manage their forest resources wisely to combat global warming, while at home Ms Spelman was committing to a "dash for the cash" selling ours to the highest bidders.
Facing possibly the greatest challenges since the Second World War, most of all we need to be about consensus politics. If the Coalition can take the nation with it, there is nothing that cannot be achieved.; squander goodwill and undermine morale with irrelevant and trivial diversions is the surest way to crack consensus.
Ms Spelman chose to split the nation by provoking a ferocious backlash that transcended political divisions and for what? Her reforms did nothing to address the deficit and nothing to get "Great Britain PLC" growing again.
D Lawrence
Lydney