Tory trash talk fails to halt bin bugging plans

Quite right to get pissy

Because once again the government is working out new ways to tax us twice. Council Tax should more than cover the cost of rubbish collection, along with everything else it's supposed to fund.

The reason local and central governments want to find new revenue sources is not because they give a shit about the environment, they need to do so to cover the costs of failed and over budget government contracts.

The UK generates almost 50% of the tax revenue of the US, and yet can't afford to provide services to a population 1/5th the size. This is because we keep allowing our government to give out juicy, expensive and almost invariably grossly inefficient contracts to crony-run big business.

And what do we do about it? Nothing. We just keep letting them get away with raising taxes, whether it be on petrol, cigarettes and alcohol, or by inventing ridiculous schemes like this one, or metered water, or energy taxation or back dating new car taxes 8 years, or whatever else they decide they need to do to afford to pay for things we don't need.

Want a way to save billions of pounds? Try NOT making a new passport and id card. Try NOT creating the IT nightmare that must (but won't be able to) support such schemes. Or better still, try voting for anyone but the current member of parliament for your area.

Why not? What you actually think they'd do worse? How could they? It's not like the current lot have a fucking clue.

The fallacy that prevents people from voting for someone else is they think that it could be worse, and their replacements might not have the experience to know how to run government. No, actually it couldn't. The people there right now don't know how to run government. Tell me exactly how many government contracts and schemes have both come in on budget and done what they're supposed to, i.e. make things better. Pick a date, say 2004, and tell me that what we have now is better or even as good as then. Really? You think hospitals are as good as they were then? Food prices are as good, energy prices are as good, the amount of money you have available to do things is as good?

These are the test results of your government, and telling me that anyone at all couldn't do better is bullshit.

Ok what about security? Hmm yes, this government is so competent it allowed the London Underground to get bombed. Boo hoo I'm not being fair. If you're going to tell me that it isn't their fault, because they don't have control over such things, then why would knowing how to deal with security even be a consideration when voting?

So really the choice is yours. Let your incumbent politicians continually raise taxes and make things worse in return (any of you really think we're getting value for the money we give them?), or try someone new. Completely new, as in not been a member of parliament before. Doesn't matter which party, they're all shit at their jobs. And this is the thing. You can't actually make thing worse by doing so. The only way to make things worse would be to vote for the same people all over again.

hmmmm

@ "To those who voted these f***ers in: do you still believe you won? Don’t you instead feel like we are the laughing stock of the world?"

erm... i still seem to remember joyfully voting out the wankers who sold everything off.. its almost like everyone seems to think that the tories were wonderous before.. i think sometimes we forget how bad things used to be also... do the blues hand out rose tinted specs? :)

thats not me saying im pro labour... i just remember when we owned rail, comms and hospitals before they were all sold off... remember that tories dont really help anywhere north of watford (especially if you arent white and middle/upper class)! oh and lets not forget the massive interest rates of the 80s when my parent and a lot of others almost lost everything.

the big issue is what do we do next?...

useless reds

dont earn enough for conservative to benefit me and they arent much better from memory

lib dems could make everything even worse (£900/year road tax my arse!)

the problem we have is that 3 useless sets of idiots are all we have to choose from.

cant we just get stephen fry to be PM and let everything else fit in place :)

as said before it seems hard to punish people for the rubbish that is created. for example. i am a good consumer.. i buy plenty of stuff.. unfortunately that stuff comes is massive oversized boxes... now, with me paying a nice amount of VAT for all this shit, isnt the cost of recycling included in the VAT?

we have just let the tories in round here.. back to weekly black bin collections (sigh). the only people that moaned about the lack of weekly collections were the ones who didnt recycle really. my black bin goes out every few months, wheras the recycle bin always seems full but its only fortnightly

WWII people retired

What we have now is government by the nieave. In the past we had people who had been through World War 2, who knew what had been fought for and so made a point of protecting our liberties.

Now we have people who think it's a great new idea to have everyone carry an ID card and keep the data in a big computer in London. IBM did this for the Nazies with punched cards.

We have people who think it's an amazing new policing technique to check people incase they have something illegal. Crime prevention.

These people think that anything they don't like, just make a law against it. Keep it wide and flexible, it will be more versitile that way.

I can think of amazing new technology driven things that solve todays 'very real' problems. How about a chip in every appliance which allows your electricity meter to monitor each one individually. Individually monitored electric would be sold at a heavy discount compared to the old default metred appliances. People would rush out and buy the new cheaper to run gadgets.

THEN the government starts adding environmental surcharges, computer juice costs more than TV juice. In fact they could start charging per minute rather than by power consumption. Too much time on the PC.

You see anyone can come up with a daft scheme using technology to enforce idealogical morals, or at least to tax sin.

OK this is how i see it going down, a time line of insanity

1) Chip n Bin is introduced

2) Mass incidents of "bin Hi-jacking" occur forcing new wheelie bins of all types to be issued now with locks at tax payers direct or indirect expense.

3) Parliament passes law making "Bin Hi-jacking" specifically illegal

4) First legal challenge to bins weights as the customer possess no metering equipment to check the councils figures.

5) Installation of bin weight measuring devices at every house, built into new bins, with locks, at tax payers direct or indirect expense.

6) Fly tipping become such a problem that a new government agency is set up to deal with it.

7) Prohibition on unmetered flat rate rubbish removal spawns a new area of criminal enterprise which attracts elements of organised crime as they like anything that makes you money.

8) Bin chips are hacked giving you your neighbours rfid code forcing new issue of bins at tax payers direct or indirect expense

9) Organised crime infiltrates the bin men and off the book corruption of waste begins

10) New laws to deal with the growing menace of Organised Crime in domestic waste disposal is passed including wide ranging powers to deal with hi and lo-tec scams

etc.

Face it, its a stupid idea, especially since my Council only manages monthly collection for paper / card, metal and plastic. Glass, kitchen waste, garden waste dont get a look in. However where i used to live, it was glass and paper and grass cuttings but not plastic and metal.

I think before they even thing about charging me, i want national compulsory recycling collections, at least monthly for domestic Glass, paper / card, plastic, metal, kitchen waste and garden waste. If they still have a waste problem after that then we can talk.