General Chat

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The Government is to spend £830 million in a drive to give the UK the best broadband network in Europe by 2015, it has been announced.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20101206/tuk-government-to-spend-830m-on-superfas-dba1618.html

whilst I'm at it, can we afford to spend £4.2 million on trees?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11889768

"The government says spending £4.2m on planting trees in towns and cities - particularly in deprived areas - will improve the quality of people's lives. Does foliage actually do this?"

Don't get me wrong I love trees and I love the internet.....I just thought we were sooooo hard up!

I'm inclined to think that trees DO improve the quality of people's lives SRS, aside from the way they put out clean air, and attract birds, they 'lift' an area... they make it seem a decent place to live in, and look after ...this estate I live on would be so much the worse without the trees and green space generally.

As for the internet, I suppose it is essential to keep British businesses competitive.

The Broadand to all areas is being funded from the BBC Licence fee....so those that are connected can watch the BBC i-player. Well, that's what they said on the BBC 6 o'clock news!

Although a lot of licence payers would probably rather the money was spent on home made quality programmes, lets admit it, there are still some rural/isolated areas who don't have the internet........or have ridiculously low speeds.

Prefer trees to internet.

prefer trees to people lol

I know, that's the thing....I agree with helping these particular areas. I absolutely love trees, they do make an area what it is and it's great for environmental purposes too. Trees are one of my favourite things in life. I also think the internet is fantastic too, it's a great educational tool too.

However, I do wonder about the things that are disappearing too like our libraries and cuts to social services. I'm just wondering why they can justify spending so much in some areas at the same time as cutting so much.

Just don't mention the failed world cup bid and council spending:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-11908445

"Councils spent about £2.1m bidding for matches in England's failed attempt to host the World Cup in 2018.

Fifa members voted for Russia to host the tournament on Thursday with England gaining just two votes.

The national bid cost the Football Association £15m but councils had to help fund bids to the FA if they wanted to host matches in their area.

The two highest spending authorities were Sunderland and Bristol at £421,584 and £363,000 respectively"

This from the Woodland Trust site ( just looking on it as you can have a tree planted in memory of someone)

Woodland Trust works with Big Society to plant nearly half a million trees





Volunteer army to green up UK's most needy areas

Some of the most deprived areas of the country are set to benefit from over 400,000 free native trees, which will be planted in community spaces and school grounds across the UK over the next month thanks to the Woodland Trust and thousands of volunteers.

A quarter of the trees will be planted by community groups who applied for a free community tree pack. Forming part of the Woodland Trust's "More Trees, More Good" campaign, which aims to facilitate the planting of 20 million native trees every year for the next 50 years, this first round saw almost 500 communities benefit, one fifth appearing in the top 10% of the "Index of Multiple Deprivation"1.

Graham Blight, Head of People Engagement at the Woodland Trust: "The take up of our free trees has been unprecedented, particularly by those in deprived urban areas who recognise and value the contribution trees make to their neighbourhoods.

With just 12% native woodland cover, compared to the European average of 44%, every one of us is impoverished by a lack of trees in our landscape. As individuals, groups and communities we can each take action to improve where we live and contribute to a bigger vision. To help make this happen, the number of communities receiving trees from us in 2011 will rise to 1,400."

10,000 schools will also contribute to the vision this autumn. 300,000 children will be given the opportunity to plant their first tree whilst improving their school grounds. Their ‘edible’ packs have been designed to increase the availability of food sources for many of the UK's native species which, when mature, will not only provide edible nuts and fruit but also shelter and wildlife habitats.

Since autumn 2004 schools and youth groups across the UK have planted more than seven million trees with the Woodland Trust. Schools and communities can apply online now to receive a free tree pack in Spring 2011 at www.MoreTreesMoreGood.org.uk/schools. Landowners can also contact the Trust's MOREwoods team for help and advice on how to plant up land of a minimum of 1 hectare.

The Trust's free tree packs have been generously supported by a range of funders and individuals including Sainsbury's, TK Maxx, The Earth Day Network - part of the Avatar One Million Tree Initiative, The Mark Leonard Trust and The Michael Marks Charitable Trust.

We planted a tree with The Woodland Trust in memory of our dog - well he was a member of this family for nearly 16 years. They do good work. Try to get TPO's on specimen trees - too hard and whoops there is another tree gone - sorry!

Trees are good. I want to be a tree.

"Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky"

Kahlil Gibran

I THINK that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the sweet earth's flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

Joyce Kilmer

"prefer trees to people lol"

Totally agree Rose :-)

I'd rather spend over £4m on trees than £15m + on football.

How many of those planted trees will be trashed?
Why don't they plant a third of what they say, and let them gradually seed themselves?
Or even better :
Go into any wood and there are self seeded trees in the wrong position - get 'community service' people to carefully dig these up and replant them.

As for broadband - why do they presume everyone has, or even wants a computer? I know a few people who have no interest whatsoever, but because they have a TV pay the licence fee - and quite frankly resent paying for the rest of us!!!