"An Englishman's home is his castle" is a well used phrase of which we are all aware. "The council does fuck all to warrant being paid so much council tax" is a sentiment that is well acknowledged even if the phrase itself is perhaps less well known. The one thing it should do without fail, and is expected to do by every resident, is collect the fucking rubbish.
Now, most of us have had to stomach the decline in service created by the fortnightly collections of normal rubbish. Any interspersed collections of a few cuttings, banana leaves, cardboard or baked bean tins hardly makes up for the useless approach. It means we all have decomposing food in our bins for up to 14 days. Now it seems that a proportion of residents in some areas are suffering further, through their council's refusal (no pun intended) to collect at all. Instead, residents old and young are expected to take bags of rubbish to the tip (not necessarily very local) or leave the bags at designated places for foxes to browse before a collection the next morning. Worse than this affront, the fact that there's to be absolutely no reduction in the council tax bill!
This is a slippery slope. Just as the majority of universities are now charging the highest level of fees, more and more councils will adopt the "get what we can" approach, or more accurately, "get out of what we can" approach. Soon, we'll be seeing many more people who are upset at having to lug bags around. Collection points will become messy, and other members of the public will be responsible for the mysterious additions to the piles of rubbish that are dotted around the UK. No more need for fly tipping, as there will be specific spots for the offloading of household trash, and even fridges.
The excuse for this unacceptable approach is any one of the following:
the world economy, the credit crunch, bankers, the coalition, Brussels, the cost of fuel.
It seems a favourite tactic is to suggest that it is either stop the refuse collections in rural areas, or kill local children who have any special needs. Yes, the choices are apparently that stark, and presented so that there's only ever going to be one outcome. Let's be clear. There is no council in the country that has to stop collecting rubbish. No, there are simply some that are opting to hit the defenceless, and not reduce the council tax bill. Meanwhile, there are dozens of useless fuckers loafing around at council offices drawing a high salary and pension rights for doing 50% of very little, and turning up for three quarters of the year; for the rest of the year, they are "sick/stressed". It is of course not an option to kick a couple of these into touch, to save money!
Just a quick note on Spain and Portugal, where the authorities manage to empty bins daily, from communal bins. They are emptied and washed out each morning, and recycling is at a high level. On top of all this, the council tax is typically 10-20% of the UK rate.
Politicians talk shit, are ineffective and self-serving. Local councillors are no better, and are locally based so they're more able to see everything that's wrong in their communities and do nothing about it. Each week, some fucker rolls the dice to decide where to erect a sign, paint a mini-roundabout, or which library to threaten with closure. This is all done after 11am, because when they turn up for work at 9.25 to 'start the day', they first each take their phone off the hook, and chew on a doughnut while shopping online at ASDA.
It would not be right to end this post without reminding you, reader, that the UK is fucked.
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