Comments
For those not aware, this is major news here in the UK. The trial is being live-streamed (with reporting, cameras are not allowed) in most major outlets.
Here's a BBC article summarising events in the trial last week: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g3kxx1k6xo
By unfunco 2025-05-049:45 Myself, and many of my friends here in Wales were outraged too, plenty of tutting could be heard. Mindless destruction of something old and beautiful just because it's there and people enjoy it, normally an act of children who can sometimes be excused for not yet having the capacity to appreciate things, but this is two grown ups.
Small towns across the country have turned to shit, they're boarded up, with only charity shops, vape shops, and betting shops left, more and more people are turning to the countryside for simple enjoyment, especially since Covid; and now that's being chopped up violently too. It was more than just a tree.
By dontlaugh 2025-05-049:36 Most people I know in the north east are quite upset. Me included.
By sorryimgreen 2025-05-0410:381 reply [flagged]
By tomhow 2025-05-0412:26 Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.
By ashdnazg 2025-05-049:33 I'm glad I walked Hadrian's Wall Path before this happened.
Close to the midpoint you're walking up and down a bunch of small but steep hills and valleys, when a huge tree appears in the next valley.
It was really a memorable view in the mostly monotonous English countryside.
By andyjohnson0 2025-05-049:471 reply I'm disappointed by the amount of cynicism on display here. Yes, it was "just" a tree, and we have others. It also seems that the stump is still alive, so in some sense it wasnt "killed".
But it was also a thing of beauty that was deliberately mutilated for no reason. I think many people worry that this kind of casual destruction is becoming increasingly commonplace, and that valuing natural beauty is becoming harder to even comprehend in the coarsend popular culture of this little island.
Edit to add:
Over the last few years in the UK a great many ancient trees have been cut down to build HS2, as well as various roads. To the developers they were just an inconvenience: in the way, and not offering any opportunity for value extraction except as dead timber. They were probably also not as instagrammable as the tree in question.
Mostly the media coverage of this focussed on the human conflict, not the trees themselves. I wonder whether we're losing our ability to even talk about the dignity and intrinsic value of non-human things.
By DrBazza 2025-05-0414:42 On the other hand HS2 will end up providing a net increase in woodland.
Are you sure you mean ancient and not veteran? Ancient trees usually have some rather special protections.
