"David Cameron has ordered ministers to carry out the government's biggest U-turn since the general election by abandoning plans to change the ownership of 258,000 hectares of state-owned woodland.

Caroline Spelman, the environment secretary, will announce on Friday that a consultation on the sale of forests will be ended after a furious backlash that united Tory supporters with environmentalists and the Socialist Workers party.

'The consultation is going to be terminated,' a government source has said. A No 10 insider added: 'It's a cock-up. We just did not think.'"

Nicholas Watt and John Vidal report for the Guardian February 16, 2011. [2]