THE HATEFUL POLITICAL CLASS...
Yes I admit it, I don't like politicians. If you want to know why, let's take the mighty Minister for the Environment Arlene Foster's declaration that from Monday coming anyone who puts the wrong materials in their recycling bins can be fined £100 from Monday. Local councils will be able to introduce the fixed penalty fine for 'low-level' waste receptacle offences.
Great - so then let's impose more fines on more people with less recourse and no justification other than wringing out more revenues from us. Look, if this is such a big issue, let's save all the fines and aggro and just forget about recycling. If we (as I know we are) are being FORCED into this by EU fiat, then save the fines and merely ask refuge collectors to advise householders that they need to more careful. Giving councils the potential power to fine ratepayers is like giving a junkie some free drugs, you just KNOW that they won't be able to resist them. Thank Allah we have "our" politicians introducing new ways to punish us financially - but hey, it's all in the name of saving the planet.
Now then, can we consider just how large a carbon footprint Minister Foster leaves on her travels and just how environmentally unfriendly her Ministerial limo is?
David Vance
19 Comments
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Reader Comments (19)
Yes I admit it, I don't like politicians.
What about that guy who used to be the deputy leader of the UK Unionist party?
There is no point in having rules if they are not enforced. Recycling is easy, everyone knows by now what goes in what bin and if they don't there are hotlines for help.
We cannot continue dumping in landfill and poisoning our water courses, never mind the waste of limited resources.
Fewsoranges,
He was the soul exception.
Peter,
Yes, but why punish people financially?
David
There are a few who will mess it up for everyone else, either negligently or deliberately. One tin of paint can ruin a whole lorry load of cardboard and paper.
David,
I believe it's a scare tactic. Who'll enforce it anyhow? The bin collectors? It's simply to persuade us to do our part.
For years there's been the threat of a £500 fine for drinking alcohol in public. To the best of my knowledge it's never been enforced.
David,
He was the soul exception.
Over here in America, we separate church and state. Now, if he had been the "sole" exception instead, that would be different. I myself dabbled in electoral politics, but, like our hero, my career was unsullied by success. (Say, there's a catchy title for someone's political memoir, eh what?)
Hey Alan,
I like to use the line that my political career started badly, then things took a turn for the worse!!
On a serious level, the more I spent time in politics the greater was my struggle with the idea that ANY one group/party have all the right ideas and I felt contained by collective responsibility. I also found that so much time was taken up by in-fighting amongst others with me as the referee. As you say, another book!
Speaking of refereeing, I was called in to help mediate a split in my local (town level) Democratic party, ended up alienating both sides, and now none of them speak to me. Do you suppose we could be cousins?
Peter -
Why should a free-born Briton be fined £100 for putting a baked bean tin in a certain box? How is his debt to the state incurred? How does he cost the state £100 by his action?
Pete,
If his taste in food runs to baked beans he should be automatically fined. No mercy!
How does one go about finding out the exact wording of the legislation (is it legislation?) passed by Foster?
I just know my little Nazi bin collector will be loving the possibility of a power trip. He lifts the lid and loves a little rummage every fortnight all down my street.He called me out one day when the lid of my brown bin was barely an inch from closing tightly..full of grass and twigs...'out of my hands, Sir'. He relented when I advised him that I would be going straight in to insist his boss and the local rag came to view the 'offending bin'!
Putting the right rubbish into the right bin = no fine.
Cait,
Must you insist on making things simple?
[Note: The above was meant to be taken humourously.]
Alan.
Rubbish;-)
Alan,
What's with the [Note: The above was meant to be taken humorously.] ?
Ain't you heard of emoticons? They save a chap hours of typing.
:0) <= emoticon
Dawkins,
Ain't you heard of emoticons? They save a chap hours of typing.
Let me test my theory on your good self, since you offered this unsolicited advice.
Which do you find more annoying?
You see, my point is to annoy more than emote. Also, my tagline Note varies to suit the exact nature of my comment. None of this is satisfied by the use of simplified symbols. I other words, the putative "savings" is not worth the investment.
[Note: The above is meant to be taken pedantically.]
Alan,
I'll come clean (as the bishop said on emerging from the actress's shower).
My sole reason for posting that was to slyly correct your spelling.
I've been taking lessons from Headmistress Cait :0)
Dawkins,
Now you've torn it! >:(
How dare you assault my peerless spelling skills, you ... you ... Cait's Paw!
Alan,
... as the virgin actress said to the bishop.
Love the emoticon!
Cait's Paw! :0)