Are the Tories now planning to sell Britain’s forests, soil and rivers?

Last Updated: October 15, 2015By

The instant a Tory puts a price tag on something, we should all assume they’re planning to sell it off – or at least a large chunk of it.

Here’s Liz Truss, the Environment Secretary:

Britain’s forests, soil and riversare worth at least £1.6tn and should be quantified in the same way as the country’s man-made infrastructure, the environment secretary, Liz Truss, has said.

In a move which embraces the natural capital agenda, Truss said that trees and bees should be valued as “national assets” in the same way as structures such as the Forth rail bridge in Scotland.

The environment secretary cited the example of Britain’s trees, which she says are more valuable in their natural form than as timber in the enjoyment they provide for people and their ecological role.

Source: Britain’s forests, soil and rivers worth £1.6tn, says environment secretary | Environment | The Guardian

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13 Comments

  1. marcusdemowbray October 15, 2015 at 9:55 am - Reply

    Great, so now Nature is no more than a commodity with a commercial value! Next step: put a value on air and charge poor people tax for breathing it and set up Air Tax Avoidance schemes for the wealthy.

    This generation of Tories is the most crass and disconnected bunch of buffle-headed bureaucratic dandiprats we have ever had.

    Tell you what, how about WE put a value on the Conservative Party and sell them off at a Car Boot Sale? We can sell off their property at Market Value and give the loot to the NHS, then sell all the members to pet food and soap factories. Job Lot, 2 p the lot, BARGAIN! Or sell them as 2nd hand posable figures, with legs apart and pig’s heads attached to their groins.

  2. NMac October 15, 2015 at 11:14 am - Reply

    These greedy, selfish cretins would, if given the chance, sell their own grandmothers.

    • Neil Shaplin October 15, 2015 at 3:43 pm - Reply

      They wouldn’t dare. Amongst the upper classes, Mummy Dearest rules the roost with an iron fist.

      Other people’s grandmothers, now… that’s a different story.

    • fathomie October 15, 2015 at 4:33 pm - Reply

      Too late. Some of them already have…

    • John Gaines October 16, 2015 at 9:52 am - Reply

      The simple answer to that Question is …Yes, they are, they will sell anything simply to keep the Rich, rich.
      They have now grabbed Housing Association property, even though it is not theirs, so expect another few thousand ‘Homeless’ soon./

  3. ian725 October 15, 2015 at 2:06 pm - Reply

    That should set some alarm bells ringing .. if indeed she actually means to sell . which is unclear. However I do not trust her one tiny bit.

  4. mohandeer October 15, 2015 at 2:15 pm - Reply

    The Tories will sell anything belonging to the public if it isn’t nailed down – like any thief in the night.

  5. mrmarcpc October 15, 2015 at 3:39 pm - Reply

    Of course they will, that’s the tory way, if they can flog it off, they will, did it back in the 80’s, make a huge profit from it and the money will not be put into the treasury for the country but in their own wallets and purses!

  6. David Bacon October 15, 2015 at 3:53 pm - Reply

    Everything is for sale, then? Birds, bees, forests, rivers, soils? They will be available to corporations who give the best donations to the tories and the likes of Truss can expect to make a killing, too. This is tory ‘patriotism’. i.e. a money grabbing plutocracy running (ruining) our nation.

  7. hugosmum70 October 15, 2015 at 4:15 pm - Reply

    ok not a lot left to sell if they sell that. except maybe the air we breathe,

  8. Dave Rowlands October 16, 2015 at 1:41 pm - Reply

    The “Air we breathe”, we pay for fire (to heat and light our homes), the water we use to sustain life and the earth we stand on, the “Air we breathe”? They haven’t figured out how to tax us for that yet, but don’t hold your breath.

  9. crazytrucker1951 October 16, 2015 at 3:28 pm - Reply

    Truss would sell her own stone cold heart if she thought there was a profit to be made, strangely my own Tub Of Lard (Tory MP) suggested this 3 years ago, she suggested selling off the Constituency’s only Forest and there was uproar but 28,856 still voted the useless Tub Of Lard back into office in May.

  10. Michelle October 18, 2015 at 2:18 pm - Reply

    Hi Mike, thanks for including this theme, natural capital or the financialisation of nature is very dangerous, I have been keeping an eye on this topic since the promotion of REDD in 2009 (in its current form, just a carbon trading / offsetting Ponzi scheme). The following link by Chris Lang gives a good general overview as does the short video included in the link by the World Rainforest Movement, Friends of the Earth and Alliança Biodiversidad who explain the ramifications of the financialisation of nature:

    http://www.redd-monitor.org/2015/08/19/the-financialisation-of-nature/

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