Cliff Hatton
Well-known member
I am one of millions and millions of Britons who quite routinely remark upon Governmental failure to recognise problems which we, the public, clearly identified 10-20 years before. How many times have you heard somebody remark “We’ve been telling them about this for years!”
When the message finally gets through to Government their response is invariably inadequate; just look at its handling of immigration, education and housing.
Just a few days back, bowing at long last to worldwide alarm at plastic-pollution, our Government decided to get really, really tough by imposing a 5p tax on shop-sold plastic bags – That’ll learn ‘em!
I might be missing something here but I really can’t think what that might be. Do the Brains of Westminster honestly believe that 5p will make us all think twice about buying a bag or deter us from throwing them out with the weekly rubbish?
We know we’re taken for fools by many of those we elect ostensibly to protect our interests but in this case of conservation and environmental concern the imposition of a 5p tax on plastic carrier bags can be seen as nothing more than a sop to the Green lobby and a nice little earner for – presumably – the Government.
Now assuming a degree of sincerity about their concern for the environment why has nobody in power seen fit to whack a £2.00 tax on plastic bags? I mean, that’s worth thinking about, isn’t it? I bet everyone would make sure they re-use their bags if failure to do so meant another couple of quid on their shopping bill.
Such a measure would make news worldwide and, hopefully, spur-on other governments to start thinking realistically about their country’s environment; who knows, Central America might start to look a bit cleaner. I’ve travelled from Panama to Guatemala, stopping at all the countries en route, and have been appalled at the squalor so many choose to live in – plastic, plastic everywhere; washed-up on beaches and piled-up in villages. On the Venezuelan coast I watched in dismay as rock-fishermen packed-up at the end of the day and routinely consigned their day’s junk to the Caribbean; and in that country’s forests I’ve been stunned, no less, to find plastic bags full of ‘Polar’ lager tins.
If only the egotists in Parliament would allow themselves to associate with the unsexy subject of rubbish disposal they could, one day, be hailed as the saviours of our ‘green and pleasant land’; but at this time pollution simply isn’t attractive or edgy enough to attract them, yet everything depends on a decent environment.
When the message finally gets through to Government their response is invariably inadequate; just look at its handling of immigration, education and housing.
Just a few days back, bowing at long last to worldwide alarm at plastic-pollution, our Government decided to get really, really tough by imposing a 5p tax on shop-sold plastic bags – That’ll learn ‘em!
I might be missing something here but I really can’t think what that might be. Do the Brains of Westminster honestly believe that 5p will make us all think twice about buying a bag or deter us from throwing them out with the weekly rubbish?
We know we’re taken for fools by many of those we elect ostensibly to protect our interests but in this case of conservation and environmental concern the imposition of a 5p tax on plastic carrier bags can be seen as nothing more than a sop to the Green lobby and a nice little earner for – presumably – the Government.
Now assuming a degree of sincerity about their concern for the environment why has nobody in power seen fit to whack a £2.00 tax on plastic bags? I mean, that’s worth thinking about, isn’t it? I bet everyone would make sure they re-use their bags if failure to do so meant another couple of quid on their shopping bill.
Such a measure would make news worldwide and, hopefully, spur-on other governments to start thinking realistically about their country’s environment; who knows, Central America might start to look a bit cleaner. I’ve travelled from Panama to Guatemala, stopping at all the countries en route, and have been appalled at the squalor so many choose to live in – plastic, plastic everywhere; washed-up on beaches and piled-up in villages. On the Venezuelan coast I watched in dismay as rock-fishermen packed-up at the end of the day and routinely consigned their day’s junk to the Caribbean; and in that country’s forests I’ve been stunned, no less, to find plastic bags full of ‘Polar’ lager tins.
If only the egotists in Parliament would allow themselves to associate with the unsexy subject of rubbish disposal they could, one day, be hailed as the saviours of our ‘green and pleasant land’; but at this time pollution simply isn’t attractive or edgy enough to attract them, yet everything depends on a decent environment.
