Hands Off Our Forsests

You would have thought that a party claiming to speak for the nationalist movement of a nation would understand the mindset of that nation. Not so the SNP when it comes to the nations forests.

Almost three quarters of the respondents to the Scottish Government consultation on the leasing of a quarter of Scotland's forest were opposed to the proposal. In fact while 71% were against only 12% were in support of the SNPs plan. Is this just the latest sign of how out of touch the SNP are with reality and the concerns of its citizens?

Well as Hamish MacDonell wrote in the Steamie yesterday it is not just limited to Scotland that the SNP have lost grasp of reality. Jim Mather the enterprise Minister is still clinging to the Arc or prosperity.

So that would be:

• Ireland where the government support for the banking sector is currently 220% of GDP, it could get worse as the Banks' coverage of loans is still 5 times that amount.
• Iceland whose banking sector almost brought the prospect of the nation going bankrupt into being.
• Norway who like Scotland have oil. With a 7% drop in the price recently that is hardly going to be a stable economic structure.
• Of course Scotland's own two one point five one point two five* Banks are also the pinicles of prosperity.

So the Arc is sinking something that never affected Noah and clearly dodesn't worry Mather either. Man the lifeboats and lets hope there is a helicopter ready to rescue us like the oilworkers before we sink to fast under Nats pilotage of our economy.

*Really depends how much of HBOS you consider Scottish after the second merger.

In Other SNP Failings

The SNP were determined to do all they could to keep the Scottish banking sector Scottish that they gathered financiers to try and put together a bid for HBoS (or at least the Bank of Scotland part). At election time the Saltire's flying from Nationalist cars makes it hard to see the wood for the trees.

Which is probably just as well as the party that wants Scottish Independence has since they got elected in 2007 been negotiating lease out a quarter of Scottish forests to overseas timber companies. Based on the amount of land that involves that should make them the 98% Scottish Nationalist Party. It looks like one victim of the high noon of the sgian dubh former Environment minister Micheal Russell has been confirming what is still being denied by Government aides. Six meetings have been held between October 2007 and July 2008 to discuss leasing out the 100,000 hectares of woodland involved.

What of Mr Russell's successor Roseanna Cunningham. Well in 1996 when the Tory government* tried to sell off Scotland's woodlands she said opposing the 'creeping privatisation':

"You can be sure that it does not take long after a sale to a private concern for gates to appear and the 'no entry' signs to go up ... communities throughout Scotland will see their woodland amenities disappearing into the hands of private owners."

So despite saying if it matters to you to vote for them. In the space of 24 hours we've learnt that fairer taxes are important enough to fight for, for now and the forested parts of Scotland and their amenities also don't matter that much.

There is no better time than now to fight to save Scotland's forests from the SNP and sign the petition.

*Note for younger readers. Before 1997 other parties under that Labour did form the government of the UK.