Wednesday 16 September 2009

I Thought ‘Progress’ Meant We Went Forward..?

Francis Wheen, in yesterday’s ‘Mail’, thinks we are headed back to the 70s.

Meanwhile, in another part of the paper, it seems he may be right. But it’s actually the 1870s
Every home will be issued with a kitchen slop bucket under plans being drawn up in Whitehall.
Just fantastic
Ministers aim to ban the dumping of food waste in landfill sites.

They insist that all the food collected by binmen is instead sent to recycling plants.

The nationwide scheme will mean that households will be forced to have a separate slop bucket - or kitchen caddy as Whitehall prefers to call them - for everything from chicken bones to mouldy lettuce and left-over baked beans.
When are we going to say ‘ENOUGH!’ to this nonsense?

We pay a fortune in council tax for the emptying of bins and the sweeping of streets and we have done that ever since people back in Victorian times looked at public hygiene and thought “Hmmm, we can do better than this…”.
In a trial at 94,000 homes in 19 council areas last year, a quarter of those taking part reported terrible smells and infestations of maggots, flies and rats.
The other three quarters were in hospital with e-coli and cholera, so couldn’t complete the survey…
Mr Benn indicated his intention to ratchet up the Government's push for more recycling earlier this summer, saying: 'It's time for a new war on waste'.

He intends to put out a consultation paper by the end of the year which could lead to compulsory slop bucket rules by the end of 2011.
Just in time for the Olympics!

That’ll make East London smell even better than usual for all those foreign dignitaries, won’t it?
The Government is anxious to prevent food waste going to landfill because of its impact on climate change.

The threat of EU sanctions is, however, more substantial. Brussels is to start collecting heavy fines from British councils after 2013 if landfill reduction targets are not met.
Isn’t it time we kicked this nonsense into touch?

Let’s hope this results in a bigger vote for UKIP…

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Isn't it time all these insane schemes were first trialled by our MPs, "Lords", MEPs, Councillors and Quango members before reaching even consultation stages? And they should be living in houses that real people live in, that don't have room for their oh so pretty wheelie bins, slop bucket sheds and the like.
Hmm, glad I got that off my chest.

Weekend Yachtsman said...

It's hard to see the problem, given that the methane from landfills is collected and used to generate electricity, so it doesn't contribute to "greenhouse" and is also quite ecologically sound.

What's that? They didn't know?

Joined-up government, anyone?

Tomrat said...

Let’s hope this results in a bigger vote for UKIP

I sure hope not Julia; what have they managed to achieve since their founding? Bout as useful as nipples on a bloke...

Incidentally you might fInd this interesting.

JuliaM said...

"And they should be living in houses that real people live in, that don't have room for their oh so pretty wheelie bins, slop bucket sheds and the like."

The council tried a 'we'll switch to wheelie bins' pilot in my nect of the woods.

They trialled it in an areas where everyone has large drives, and an area where the main road is criss-crossed by intersecting streets, so there's a lot of end-terrace houses. Majority agreed that wheelies were fab!

Unsurprisingly, they then got to roll it out to a mostly terraced house borough, where few have drives. Cue mayhem...

JuliaM said...

"Joined-up government, anyone?"

Heh! That'll be the day...

"..what have they managed to achieve since their founding?"

I think they'd have had a better showing in the last elections, had everyone not switched to BNP as a 'protest' vote.

Certainly doesn't help that Farage has jumped ship, though.

That landfill waste scheme looks impressive. I suspect it would fall foul of NIMBYism though...

blueknight said...

You are not old enough to remember the 'pig bins' at the corner of the street?
All the food leftovers went into the bins which were collected every few days and boiled up to make pig swill.
The only problem was that rats got in the bins and the pigs ate the rats and caught disease. For ages after that farmers needed a special licence to move swill fed pigs from town to town.
It gave birth to a song we used sing about school dinners -
# Say what you will
school dinners make you ill
Davy Crocket died of apple pie
All school din dins
Come from pig bins
Out of town.

Stewart Cowan said...

"Let’s hope this results in a bigger vote for UKIP."

Yes. First, let's get out the EU and then we can continue with the silly left/right thing if that's what people want.

Fat Hen said...

This clearly is a case for elf'n'safety -- plenty of allergens and carcinogenic spores, plus a whole host of other health hazards. to be found in that kind of system.

And who in their right mind is going to empty stinky slop buckets for peanuts anyway? (what about their human rights and dignity???)

Ps.: I notice with great disappointment that the Daily Wail and other papers neglected to bring an exclusive interview with Market the executed sheep's sausages... :-(

Tomrat said...

Julia,

"I think they'd have had a better showing in the last elections, had everyone not switched to BNP as a 'protest' vote.

Certainly doesn't help that Farage has jumped ship, though.


An observation, which I don't think your actually saying BTW; The BNP are stealing votes from UKIP? More likely Labour. UKIP aren't doing well because people are realising that eroding the EU from within doesn't work; outright rejection from Parliament of the European Communities act while we still retain out sovereignty is the only solution and there is no chance this will be tolerated for debate in parliament.

"That landfill waste scheme looks impressive. I suspect it would fall foul of NIMBYism though...

existing landfills could be utilised for power generaton; additionally the methane is no longer polluting the air- jobs a good un