Issues I have

Wednesday. Not the beginning of the week, not the end, just somewhere in the middle. It is, however, post midday, so theoretically we are closer to the end. I think I am going to take of next Friday and the Tuesday after the bank holiday to try and get some decorating done. That means a hell of a lot of clearing out - mainly all stuff that my mother has horded and seems extremely loathe to get rid of. I am hoping that my brother the toad) and his friend want to earn some money next week, and will put laminate flooring down in the living room. This probably sounds like a big job, but, honestly, the initial clear-out (which will, undoubtedly be my job) is going to be a gazillion times harder. The laminate floor we have just locks in to place so there's nothing difficult about it. The toad's friend is a lovely guy, who just so happened to have completed a college course in carpentry, so I reckon I'm on to a winner here. The carpet is foul and really needs to go, but i want to paint the walls first so it doesn't matter if any spills. Ooooh, I'm getting shivers just thinking about being able to sweep and wipe instead of hoovering! This is exciting for me. Yes, I am sad.


It's all a load of rubbish
I read in the paper today that voters are in uproar about local councils dropping the weekly rubbish collection to fortnightly. Apparently, forty percent of councils are now collecting rubbish only twice a month. From Northampton to Devon, councillors are fighting to reinstate weekly refuse collection, for fears over hygiene - people have reported an increase in rat sightings, as well as flies and maggots, and nasty smells. And we live in a civilised country? It really is so disgusting, and made even more so with the warm weather we've been having recently. Apparently this will persuade more people to recycle, as opposed to just throwing things out. Bollocks to that. I have a green wheelie bin for recyclables and a brown one for refuse. Dutifully, all my paper, card, tins and plastics go in to my green wheelie bin, and everything else in to the brown one - no, apparently the London Borough of Sutton do not recycle glass, so that I have to take to a bottle bank myself. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I really cannot imagine the council paying for people to go through the wheelie bind, separating all the different materials for recycling. And, to be honest, if they are then they have waaay too much money. I was in Australia last month, and not only do they use re-usable bags for their shopping (for everything from food to clothes, and ALWAYS available as an alternative to plastic bags) but they also have separate crates for tins, plastic, glass and the like, and the councils COLLECT EVERY DARN WEEK. How have we managed to go so horribly wrong?


Green, green, green!
But it's not simply rubbish collection. In the Government's 'go green' drive, they are preventing people from travelling. Quite literally. Good ole' Gordy brings in an illegal tax on those travelling by air. Nice. Fortunately, Qantas were good enough to not charge me this extra money for my flight. The thing is, that the debt we keep hearing that the Government has gotten itself in to seems to have driven The Powers That Be absolutely insane. The congestion charge was only the start of it. Red Ken mis-matched all the lights in the zones he wanted to charge drivers for, then brings in the charge, and amazingly, the lights are phased back. Of course, it must have been the congestion charge that sorted out the traffic! And now the Commie is up to his old tricks again. Our mayor has taken it upon himself to remove the contra-flow lane in the Blackwall tunnel that has served as the only way for a huge volume of motorists to come in to the city for nearly 30 years. Now, many of these people are having to go through Greenwich. And guess where Ken has set his sights on extending the congestion charge to??

The congestion charge is supposed to force more people on to public transport, making London a greener city. Instead, the rail services are a mess. The monopolisation of track ownership has been costly to only the customer. Commuters who pay £2000+ per year on rail travel are supposed to expect not to have a seat on their train, while there are untold numbers of empty, unused carriages that the private companies cannot afford to rent from the Government. Fantastic. I really despise all these Labour-ites who blame the state of the rails on Maggie. It is the current government who makes it nigh on impossible to run trains. And yet the price of the trains is ever-increasing. To combat this, in my local area, Kenny-boy has taken it upon himself to hand out 100,000 free Oyster cards, (they usually cost £3) each loaded with £5. (Personally, I think this is all part of Labour's plan to build a master database, seeing as people will have to sign up to the Oyster system - handing over their details - as opposed to just being handed them). Ken actually believes that handing the people of Sutton £5 of travel, (which incidentally is only 5 bus journeys, or not even 4 tube journeys, and cannot be used to travel to the majority of the London over-land railway stations) is going to get people "out of their cars and on to public transport".

Bollocks, bollocks bollocks to it all.



Rant over.