The fee to get into Kew Gardens now is £13. £13! It used to be a penny. So it costs 3120 times what it did forty years ago. That's an increase of 312,000% - a level of inflation unheard of outside Zimbabwe.
This is the kind of thing they spend all that money on – the new Xstrata walkway, designed by the people responsible for the London Eye.
That's one of the struts holding it up. It opens this Saturday. You'll be able to walk along at treetop level – "the most compelling tree-top experience in the UK". I can believe it. For only £13. And no, I don't know how they got that name or how you're meant to pronounce it. Exstrata, I assume. Sponsored by these people, perhaps. In the old days it would have just been The Treetop Walk – a couple of rope ladders and some planks.
It's not all trees at Kew. You can also meet friendly birds there:
Mick Hartley 
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