"Can we still afford a national forest service? Older readers may recall that, back in 1994, the Government flirted with the idea of privatising the land administered on our behalf by the Forestry Commission. All the conservation bodies objected, saying, in effect, that it would harm the environment. A lone voice from the bushes whispered that that was unlikely because it was impossible to imagine worse harm to our forests than the FC had already inflicted. That voice was mine."