Whoever wins the election, three things are certain: borrowing is going to rise, taxes are going to have to go up – and there will be a lot more trees. There may even be enough trees to replace those lost to produce all those Lib Dem election leaflets and bogus newspapers.
The election campaign has descended into a manic contest to see who can promise to plant the largest number of trees. The Conservatives have promised 30 million a year for five years, the Lib Dems have upped that to 60 million. The Greens have chipped in with 70 million a year for ten years. Never to be outdone, Labour has promised 100 million trees a year for 20 years. So there.
It is all beginning to look like a Monty Python sketch. That’s nothing, the Tories should now say: we’re going to plant 10 billion trees, until there is one coming out of every chimney pot.
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