IT HAS been announced that our Forest land is to be protected and not sold off, as were the wishes of New Forest West MP Desmond Swayne .

Also I am delighted at the go-ahead to create more woodland.

We need trees and wildlife.

I wonder if the ever-cheerful Desmond would kindly inform us, during all the time he has been an MP, when has he ever got it right?

He told locals he would scrap the National Park Authority, bring back hunting. He got involved in the invasion of Iraq.

He got lost on a charity bike ride and more recently went to the wrong pier in Bournemouth to start another.

But the Conservatives will always win elections locally unless people start to take them far more seriously and stop backing people like him.

RICHARD GRANT, Burley.