Document 671

Dipper: 59 - The Great Conifer Con

Author(s): Dr James A Begg

Copyright holder(s): Dr James A Begg

The recent conversion of Mrs. Thatcher and her Government from Cobalt Blue to 'Green' will only impress sceptical environmentalists, whose warnings of many of the present impending natural calamities facing the world were pooh-poohed by successive Governments ten or fifteen years ago, when Ministerial double-talk gives way to positive, enthusiastic action. The following two poems, in English for a wider appreciation, say it all!

The Environmental Minister
Dreamed up a wizard wheeze -
- At first glance nothing sinister -
He swore he meant to please
The Environmental Lobby,
And put them at their ease,
When he stopped T.Wogan's hobby
Of avoiding Tax with Trees.

Had 'Our Leaders' shown rare qualities;
Seen the folly of their ways;
Of pursuing ancient policies
That date back to the days
When trees were chopped to prop the pits,
Smelt steel, build ships of oak?
- The pits have gone, steel's had a blitz,
Shipbuilding's now a joke!

Alas! The 'Guardians' of our Land,
Ignoring counsels sane;
Dogmatic minds and grasping hand
Obsessed with private gain;
Have pandered to the Men of Means,
Of Profit, Power and 'Yields',
With a doubled grant for evergreens
To scar hills, moors and fields!

To such men, conservation means:
'Conserve the Ruling Class,
To Hell with soft idyllic scenes
- For where there's muck there's Brass!'
Our landscape goes from bad to worse,
And now to cap it all,
They rob poor Peter Public's purse,
To pay rich Private Paul!

Information about Document 671

Dipper: 59 - The Great Conifer Con