The Earl of Dundee struggling with Hindsight and Foresight in July 1958

House of Lords
"My Lords, may I ask my noble friend whether the Government are aware that it takes anything from 70 to 150 years before a tree is mature, and that the trees being planted now will not be half mature in the year 2000. Is he aware that it is a little difficult to carry out a long-term national forestry policy if Governments change their mind every five years, as was general between the wars? And could my noble friend say whether the Government are still of the opinion that homegrown timber is necessary to Great Britain on strategic and on economic grounds, as every Government always thinks during and for a few years after every national emergency; or whether the Government now feels that home grown timber is of little strategic or economic importance, as every Government is apt to think about ten years after the end of an emergency and to go on thinking until the next emergency comes along, by which time even the trees planted before the last emergency but three are not yet ready to be cut?"

Hmmm, we went on planting and the emergency has not yet arrived...or is it Climate Change?