Operation Desert Zone

‘THE Independent says that the Government has decided to pour £540m into the rebuilding of Iraq.

Anorak EZ Tent (£539,999,999.99)

If this sounds like a lot of cash, you should consider that it cost this Government around £700m to construct a huge tent in London’s Docklands.

Funds mean that the tent earmarked for construction in the Iraqi desert will be smaller than ours and the locals will have to forgo the delights of the Body Zone.

But the Desert Dome will come with a camping stove and two Anorak Everywhere Chairs – ‘Just another outdoor chair,’ you ask? ‘Not so. This one adjusts for both hillsides and flat ground.’

But it’s not all good news since the money has to come from somewhere.

And, having bled us all dry, the Government has siphoned some cash from its programme aimed at saving the Amazonian rainforest.

The Independent leads with this story, relating how the £16m reserved to saving Amazonia is being spent in Iraq.

Labour MP Barry Gardiner is appalled and reminds us all that the environmental impact of deforestation is very serious. Indeed, it is.

Readers learn that the programme, operated by G7, the consortium of the world’s leading industrial nations, of which Britain is a member, underpins efforts to curtail the effects of global warming.

It might just be that in saving one Iraq the Government has set about creating another. Give it 10 years and the Amazon should be every bit as dry and sandy as downtown Baghdad.’

Posted: 12th, November 2003 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink