I REALLY do admire the Poles because of what they have had to endure over the last hundred years. Their country was recognised formally as late as 1918, just in time to suffer punitive German occupation before the Russians took over.

It only became the independent country we now know, a member of the EU, just thirteen years ago, in 2004.

The UK has had good relations with the Poles since their wartime help, though we now exploit their hard work in poorly paid jobs harvesting vegetables and keeping our hotels clean and open. However this doesn’t excuse some of their national practices which encourage the production of unlimited CO2.

Unfortunately they have one of the largest brown coal deposits in Europe, and despite just 60per cent of the UK population they produce half as much coal again as we do. Indeed coal produces 85per cent of their electricity compared to only 35per cent in the UK, and ours is reducing noticeably by the year.

It follows that Poland is one of the few countries with an increasing production of CO2 per person.

However there’s even worse news when we consider the policies of the Minister for the Environment. Unbelievably he was once a forestry professor but he has made it legal for those who own land with trees to cut them down without seeking permission or informing the authorities, and large numbers of trees and woodlands have been cleared so the land can be sold to developers.

Not only does the minister tolerate this destruction but he promotes it because he considers that economic progress is more important than the environment.

He has legislated against the various concerned protection groups and has even allowed major logging to take place in the only remaining primeval forest in western Europe.

You couldn’t make this up, and it needs to stop, now.