Listners to BBC Radio 4's Any Questions yesterday would not have gained the impression from the panellists, dealing with the question of fortnightly only refuse collection, that the issue was anything other than a tussle between central and local government.
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Between the patronising Patricia Hewitt, Health Secretary, Hazel Blears and the braying of the Lib-Dim MP, Susan Kramer, the decision was either local or dictated by central diktat.
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Not once did any of the pannellists mention the very large elephant lumbering unremarked around around the room. That elephant is the European Union - in the form of the EU framework waste directive.
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It thus takes Booker, today, to write that, in all the acres of newsprint devoted in recent days to the chaos engulfing our rubbish disposal system, one crucial ingredient has been almost entirely lacking. This is, he tells us, a proper explanation not only of why we have got into this mess but why it is soon going to cost us billions of pounds, including huge fines to Brussels, which alone, on official figures, will soon total more than £1 billion.
1 comment:
What a pity that those MP,s on the prog. were not as knowlegeable as you and Booker Peter ---perhaps you should be doing their jobs?
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