Apr 28 2007
Bin spin and sin - suggest a headline for Labour’s rubbish policy
As Labour’s policy of fortnightly refuse collections backfires we are getting the usual spin response and disinformation.
We are first told??fortnightly collecitons will be?? good for us - it will lead to more recycling.
Then we are told it is not connected to government policy, nor to EU policy, it’s just the choices of Councils.
Next??we hear a counterattack on industry - it’s all the fault of the packaging industry for selling the food industry too many wrappers, or the fault of the food industry for protecting the food they sell us
And we hear a counterattack upon ourselves - it’s all our fault for not recycling enough, so we will be spied on bin by bin and fined into submission.
It’s a curious way to make people want to vote for you!
We are the customers of this very patchy and in places very poor service.
We pay through the nose for it with sky high Council taxes.
Many of us in summer would like our rubbish collected more than once a week, but that is not an option.
We are told where and when we have to place our bins at the convenience of the Council.
If they want to move to pay as you throw, I hope they will let us choose whose service we pay our money to, so there would be some competition. That would sharpen up service levels and cut prices.
If they want to spy on us for not recycling enough, they should at least make recycling easier by supplying proper containers that are clearly labelled with what goes in them - preferably ones that fit into a normal kitchen and are not an eyesore.
If Labour do badly in this election, a newspaper could lead its story with suitable headlines - any suggestions?
Some possibles:
Labour binned by rubbish policy
or Labour Councillors thrown out??for lack of recycling
??
??
RSS Feed
John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
The PRIME PURPOSE for rubbish collection is as a public health measure - and it works. Everything else, including re-cycling, is secondary. If re-cycling was such a good thing and cost effective then rubbish would be a saleable commodity.
Labour councillors disposed of at the polls
Labour’s recycled policies dumped into the bin
Here’s a pretty good article summarising the causes of this problem
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2007/04/space-fillers-strike-again.html
Recycling Labour never works
: “If they want to move to pay as you throw, I hope they will let us choose whose service we pay our money to, so there would be some competition.”
What are the alternative CONSERVATIVE policies? So far you are simply making a fool of yourself telling us what the other parties are doing wrong. The truth is you cannot offer alternative policies with any substantial difference to the other parties.
John, it is not about competition, that ‘wallah’ from biffra, knows what it is about, it is the bloody European Union. We could have as much competition as you want, we already know the cheapest method of waste disposal, it is land fill.If we use it there is no competitive advantage because the EU will fine the UK for using cheap landfill! Competition among waste disposal organisations cannot work if there is an overarching organisation deliberately disencentivising the lowest cost behaviour.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/04/28/do2807.xml
You know that is the case, but I guess you cannot say so because Cameron has foolishly cast himself as being ‘green’, that together with his pro European Union policy stance.
Here is how you could introduce competition, European Union competition. Pledge to reassert UK authority over domestic waste disposal and if you get elected at the same time pass leglislation making the UK immune from the financial penalties the EU will impose. The UK can perfectly well accomodate responsible and properly managed landfill rubbish disposal. Those well managed sites can even produce methane as a by product. But we cannot do that while being hamstrung by the European Union.
Hospital A&E closures in conservative areas should be the No 1, 2, 3 &4 issue for all southern conservatives. This is the reason why Labour will be wiped out in the SE local elections. People are not prepared to lose their A&E’s.
When Labour lose every single councellor challenge Hewitt as to where her mandate is to cut primary health case (a basic Human Right) to political opponents.
The Conservative party MUST stand up for their constituents on this issue - we will follow you in our tens of thousands
That’s a really succinct four point analysis of the spin, amounting to “it’s nothing to do with me, it’s someone else’s fault”
By coincidence today here are two more excellent articles on this subject
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/29/nbooker29.xml
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2007/04/no-wonder-they-dont-want-to-talk-about.html
Seems to sum up the problem pretty well I think!
JR: