We have lately had a spate of people telling us not only what we should (with any useful info on how being noticeable in the absence) think but, apparently with magical telepathic powers, what we are thinking.
From government to local authorities to the media, our opinions are being shaped, it seems, by telling us that what were thinking is in fact not what we are thinking. I guess that having seen the error of our ways by it coming from such trusted sources we will immediately revise them. Not.
So we have on the BBC this morning a report about the state of our rubbish laws.
What was most striking to me was a piece featuring some residents in Oxford (one of the more enlightened councils, I'd always thought) who were a bit fed up being told that there was no problem with bi-weekly collections, when in fact, by the evidence of all their senses (especially olfactory), there was. Seems they had not read the research or press releases thoroughly enough.
And so we arrive at the fact (well...) that this brainwave to force us to recycle more (nothing to do with saving money, oh, no) is, in fact, not working out: MPs: Fortnightly bin collections are an unworkable mess
Now, in my new capacity as Scoop Male, I have gone off and sourced this report. Well, I googled and clicked two links. Bernstein and Woodward look out!
I feel I must... should... as the quotes from the report writers made... gasp... a lot of sense, and were all the more refreshing by being from 'in-house' taboot, it being a Labour MP who headed it all.
Thing is, it is now in a list of several I have yet to read. Ho hum.
But things like this make it look worth the effort:
"In the long term there should be a move towards a national strategy to encourage householders and retailers to cut down on food waste. At present a third of all food bought is subsequently thrown away, wasting households on average £400 a year and adding to refuse collection costs."
“We would like the Government come up with a core definition of what householders should expect from their refuse collection. This should include no complicated rules, rubbish collected when the council says it will be and schemes to suit every household from the largest rural home to the most crowded urban area.
“What we do not want is, as Ben Bradshaw, then the Minister for Waste, put it, local authorities “blundering” into AWC before proper consideration and consultation has taken place as to whether this is the best system for that area.”
Or, let the BBC show what it is good at: MPs criticise bin collection plan Plus report. 63 b****y pages! Maybe later.
Guardian - Q&A: Rubbish collections
Guardian - Fortnightly collections not always the answer, say MPs
3 comments:
They were discussing this very topic on Vine (Radio 2) only a short while ago.
I almost bumped my car into another on a roundabout because I was laughing so much. Not at the topic, but at a local authority spokesman who was vehemently insistent that moving from weekly to fortnightly refuse collections was NOT halving the service!
Well, we'll just have to put you down as a statistical anomaly.
And me.
Having watched the tail-end of another BBC outlet, lunchtime news, I may join in the mirth having watched a Brown Babe minister or other also claim that there was no financial advantage to local or central government at all. Interesting fiscal leap. You halve a service involving plant and personnel, yet there is no saving to be made.
Hmnn.
I guess if you spin too much the prop eventually comes off, leaving you just with a lot of noise, a lot of folk ducking for cover... and, of course, the shaft! There'll always be the shaft.
I always though it was the other way around but that sounds more like a case of when the fan hits the sh*t'.
And we all know who gets the blunt end of the shaft - the poor old consumer! Again!
Post a Comment