Give yourselves a hand!
As Spring Clean concludes with 437,000 heroes joining the campaign...
THE Great British Spring Clean came to an end yesterday – and the Daily Mail thanks every one of the 437,000 litter pickers who turned out to join the campaign.
Across the UK, big-hearted volunteers rolled up their sleeves to help remove the scourge of rubbish.
An incredible 437,183 people signed up for the drive, which ran from March 25 until yesterday and was organised by Keep Britain Tidy and backed by the Daily Mail. Together they filled up 445,166 bin bags of rubbish.
The campaign backed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson received cross-party support with celebrities and politicians helping. These included Michael Gove, Arlene Phillips, Debbie McGee, Baroness warsi, Freddie Flintoff and ray Mears. Keep Britain Tidy’s chief executive, Allison ogden-Newton oBE, said: ‘The collective effect of the efforts of everyone who took part in the Great British Spring Clean is significant for our environment. More than 150,000 children and young people joined in the Great Big School Clean, proving that no one’s too small to make a big difference.’
Meanwhile, Jo Churchill, the resources and waste minister, said: ‘The Great British Spring Clean has once again been a brilliant demonstration of what we can achieve for our environment when we work together. In the Queen’s jubilee year, I want to thank everyone involved in our mission to tackle litter.
‘we have ambitious plans to make companies more responsible for managing their packaging waste and introduce a deposit return scheme to ensure billions more drinks bottles and cans are safely returned to shops and recycled. we all want to be able to take pride in our local area and enjoy our parks and countryside – so we will continue our fight.’
More than a thousand offenders have joined in with the Great British Spring Clean as part of a £93million government programme. Justice minister Kit Malthouse said offenders on Community Payback put in around 10,000 hours of graft – clearing tons of litter from roadsides.
eVeN Boris sceptics must have felt a swell of patriotic pride over the Prime Minister’s surprise visit to Kyiv at the weekend.
The PM’s decision to brave the Ukrainian capital’s war-torn streets and pledge support against Putin’s evil war showed him at his very best.
As this paper has repeatedly pointed out, Mr Johnson has handled this crisis with aplomb. he has provided weapons which have helped halt russia’s tanks and imposed sanctions that have economically crippled its degenerate regime.
Meanwhile, he has corralled our initially hesitant european neighbours into action.
No wonder President Zelensky has urged western leaders to ‘follow the example of the United Kingdom’. Coming from the bravest leader in living memory, there can be no higher praise.