SUGAR’S A SWEETIE AFTER ALL!
He gives £100,000 for Mail’s school orchards
‘Increasingly aware of climate change’
HE is known as one of Britain’s toughest businessmen – telling young entrepreneurs ‘You’re fired’ when they fail to make the grade.
But now Lord Sugar has revealed a sweeter side to his nature by making a donation of £100,000 to the Daily Mail’s Be A Tree Angel campaign to create a greener Britain.
The campaign, organised with the Tree Council, encourages members of the public to plant trees or donate money to plant them around the UK – particularly in urban areas where they are needed most.
In one branch of our campaign, businesses have been asked to help fund planting orchards in schools. Lord Sugar, who this week completed his 15th series of The Apprentice on BBC1, has now become the third donor in a week to pledge £100,000 towards the orchards project.
He said his motivation is to inspire children to appreciate nature and to fight climate change.
He was joined by supermarket Sainsbury’s which has pledged a further £ 25,000 to fund orchards for schools.
The donations have come after this newspaper has given away thousands of holly, birch, oak, willow and spruce trees, while pledges and donations from the public will fund the planting of more than 35,000 trees.
In the past three days alone the campaign has raised more than £300,000 from businesses. On Tuesday Richard Caring, chairman of Caprice Holdings, which owns the Ivy restaurant chain, donated £100,000 to the campaign. On Wednesday, a British businessman who wished to remain anonymous donated £ 100,000. And now Lord Sugar has become our third major sponsor.
But even more money has come in. Lloyds Banking Group and Dobbies Garden Centres have also made generous donations to the campaign, which has been backed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and celebrities including Joanna Lumley, Ben Fogle, Jilly Cooper and Clive Anderson.
Organisations such as the RSPB, National Trust and Woodland Trust also support the campaign.
Lord Sugar’s funding, along with that of other generous businessmen and companies, means the campaign can pay for more than 3,000 orchards at 3,000 schools – three times the original target.
Writing about his donation, Lord Sugar said: ‘Over the last year or so I’ve become increasingly aware of how climate change is affecting our planet.’
He said he hopes to inspire a new generation to appreciate trees because it ‘really is miraculous to learn how trees absorb carbon dioxide, one of the main greenhouse gases, and emit oxygen into our atmosphere’.
He also jokingly took a dig at an old sparring partner, writing: ‘The only other recommendation I can make is that we cut down on the hot air emanating from Piers Morgan’s mouth.’ Sara Lom, chief executive of the Tree Council, said: ‘It’s fantastic to have Alan Sugar’s generous support for the Daily Mail’s Tree Angel campaign.
‘Lord Sugar’s amazing £100,000 donation, and the £25,000 from Sainsbury’s, will help create a further 1,250 orchards and fruiting hedgerows through this campaign.
‘If we are to secure a healthy, tree-filled future we all have to play our part, and the support of business will be essential.’
Backing the campaign last night, Environment Secretary Theresa Villiers said: ‘It is fantastic to see that the campaign has enlisted the backing of so many organisations and individuals; gathering momentum for thousands more trees to be planted.’
She added: ‘Our manifesto sets out the most ambitious environmental programme that any British Government has ever been elected on, and tree planting across the UK is a vital part of this.
‘The Government has planted over 22million trees since 2010, and we have committed to go further, increasing planting rates in this Parliament, and growing woodland cover across the country. We must plant more now to help reach net zero emissions by 2050.’
THE parallels are striking. A head of government accused of law-breaking by a vindictive Lower House, spurred on by a hostile, partisan Speaker. Not Boris Johnson this time, but Donald Trump.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of Mr Trump’s dealings with the president of Ukraine, these impeachment proceedings are becoming absurd. The Democrat- controlled House of Representatives says they must go ahead, but the Republican-dominated Senate – the final arbiter – is sure to throw them out.
So now House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who loathes her President with a passion, says she may not pass the case on to the Upper House at all.
Instead she would leave the allegations hanging, hoping for the stain of criminality to blight Mr Trump’s re-election chances. As well as being patently unjust, such cynical legal manoeuvrings may well backfire. Like Remainer MPs who were so contemptuous of the referendum result, Democrats have never accepted their electorate’s decision to put Mr Trump into the White House.
But by manipulating the instruments of state in a bid to bring him down, they are asking for trouble at the polls.
This paper has never been slow to point out Mr Trump’s shortcomings, but he did win an election.
And if there’s one lesson the Democrats should learn from our own recent experience, it’s this: The voters really hate sore losers.
▪ HUGE thanks to professionally grumpy TV icon Lord Sugar, who revealed his gentler side by becoming the latest major donor to our Be A Tree Angel campaign. The Mail has been humbled by the fantastic response of all our readers. We already have enough to plant 3,500 school orchards – and money is still pouring in. Together, we will make Britain a greener, better place.