Fernando Torres can kick a ball about and is worth £50m, apparently.
40,000ha of England's forests, that's 40,000 football pitches, are worth £100m.
Are our values quite right?
A love of the natural world demonstrates that a person is a cultured inhabitant of planet Earth.
It only gets worse. Looking at the map of the Government's plans for the Nation's woodlands I note that both Purbeck (Dorste) and Rendlehsam (Suffolk) are classed as 'small commercial' - ie to be sold to the highest bidder. That's logical - both are boring conifer plantations - but hang on a second - they are also both planted on heathland and first rank sites for restoration back to heathland. A new (forestry) owner might well go on restoring ancient woodland if the grants are right - but what's the chance of a forestry buyer restoring heathland ? Approximately zero - so is the only option RSPB competing on the open market at woodland prices which continue to rocket (one 200 ha wood recently sold for £10,000/ hectare the price of reasonable farmland). So do we want our subs to go to buying something we already own - or tell the Government to act responsibly with OUR, not their, property and get on with delivering restored heathland - and the chance of hitting at least some of our biodiversity goals (thats a nod to your football analogy + we have to remember there are no more targets !)