Environment secretary Caroline Spelman announced the other day that the government had done a U-turn, and had cancelled the proposed move to sell state-owned woodland in the UK. “I am sorry, we got this one wrong, but we have listened to people’s concerns. I would like to thank colleagues for their support through what has been a difficult time. I now want to move forward in step with the public.”
An odd proposal, which Caroline admitted hadn’t been received well at all. “I have taken a decision to end the consultation on the future of the public forest estate and I take full responsibility for that. I am doing so because it is quite clear from the early responses to the consultation that the public and many honourable members are not happy with the proposals we set out.”
Cut lots of back-slapping and congratulatory posts across Facebook, Twitter and many other social media platforms as the move was announced. Social media isn’t just great for search engine optimisation, you know. One of the most vocal campaigners, a campaign calling itself ’38 Degrees’, has taken a lot of the credit for the U-turn, thanks to its visible use of social media to stir up public interest and encourage people to sign an online petition which attracted 533,053 signatures against the proposal.
38 Degrees was able to raise funds to commission a YouGov poll – the results of which showed that 84 per cent disagreed with the move. “This was a real team effort,” says 38 Degrees’ executive director, David Babbs. “This is the story of an awful lot of people getting together and changing the government’s mind.”
People power has been championed as the reason behind the government’s change of mind. There’s no doubt too that social media services played a massive part in connecting people’s minds and opinions, and creating an enormous momentum towards a common goal and ideal that they all shared.
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Posted by John.
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