Peter Hil lBY
THE Government has apparently scrapped its campaign to restore weekly refuse collections after handing out £ 250million which local councils claimed wasn’t enough. Collecting our rubbish is one of the most important functions of local government. When it’s not done the streets stink, gulls, rats and other scavengers spread trash all over the place and everywhere is a mess.
A normal family has far too much waste to go two weeks without collection. There is so much packaging these days, much of the tough plastic very hard to compress. We try our best but you can’t fit a pint into a half- pint glass. Home delivery of on- line purchases has doubled the amount of cardboard to be disposed of.
But no one in government, whether national or local, thinks it matters that much. Councils are recycling zealots and anyone who misplaces a bottle top is persecuted as if they were a paedophile. Bin collectors have become monsters and will leave yours full if they decide you have broken the rules.
There is a case for taking it out of council hands and starting a national refuse collection service with a sensible set of rules led by a can- do chief executive. qTHE
worst reason for making key policy decisions is the knee- jerk reaction. Precisely what has happened after the harrowing picture of migrant Aylan Kurdi’s little body being carried from the sea.
No one could fail to be moved to tears by the sight but our leaders are there to take rational decisions. Throwing up their hands and saying we will admit thousands more refugees and migrants is not rational and in fact will make things worse.
Encouraged by the outpouring of sympathy, thousands, perhaps millions more migrants will head our way. More leaking boats will be filled and many more children will drown.
It’s yet another example of the folly of unforeseen consequences. Except in this case the consequences are obvious. A mad hysteria is sweeping Europe’s rulers. This migrant frenzy will destroy us all. qMEANWHILE,
what are the super- rich Arab states doing to share the refugee burden? You’d think they would be falling over to help their fellow Muslims but no, they are only interested in buying up Mayfair mansions and competing to build the highest skyscrapers.
Some are secretly financing the terrorists who are causing the migration explosion. Our own leaders say nothing because they are terrified of losing Arab investment cash. Cowards. qTHE
partner of former Lib- Dem leader Charles Kennedy blames the drinking culture and cheap booze of the House of Commons for his untimely death. As a newspaperman of the old school I know all about drinking cultures but I do not blame anyone except myself for the heavy burden I used to inflict on my liver. We are always free to use that little word No. qA
BRITISH couple were arrested at Palma airport and sentenced to a year’s suspended prison sentence for abandoning their teenage son. They left him behind at their holiday hotel because he refused to go home.
What were they supposed to do? Drag him on the coach by his hair? In which case they would have been arrested for assault. I don’t suppose they meant to leave him in Mallorca permanently – just to teach him a lesson.
It would have been enough for the police to reunite him with his family at the airport, by which time he would have realised he could not stay on his own without money or permission.
Teenagers are impossible sometimes and parents need a bit of sympathy. qI KNOW there are some viewers who watch both Strictly and X Factor but I suspect most of the nation’s preferences are for one or another. We are Strictly people, although I fear it is beginning to look a bit sameold. We’ve tried X Factor but can’t stand the cloying sentimentality, the floods of tears, the sob stories. It’s reality TV without reality. qSCIENTISTS
are on the point of finding a cure for seasickness, a device which shoots a tiny electrical charge into the brain convincing it that everything is fine. It can’t come soon enough for me.
My worst episode was on a sea fishing trip off Fleetwood, Lancashire. I was OK till we anchored in a big Irish Sea swell. As the boat pitched and tossed, burly anglers looped horrible lugworms on to their hooks then guzzled sandwiches and pies.
They said I went completely green. I spent the entire day with my head over the side. I’d have been happy for a bolt of lightning to end my misery. qA
MOVE is afoot ( forgive the pun) to stop children wearing shoes fastened with Velcro because they never learn to tie laces. I agree. Velcro is a fantastic product but some skills are better learned at an early age. Laces also look so much neater than straps.
All children should be taught to tie a few useful knots: shoelaces, neckties, the reef knot and the bowline.
The last two might save you one day. Good knots come undone easily, bad ones jam. These are life skills. qA
VAST block of stone has been discovered buried in the London borough of Islington. Excited archaeologists believe it could be a druid shrine. Sorry to disappoint them but I think they will find it is an ancient tablet announcing the start of the current Labour leadership contest. Will it really ever end?