Filth, scum and council tax.
In short, three things which get right on my tits.
Well, two things really, because filth and scum are pretty much the same thing; at least, they are for my purposes. To be even more specific, I'm talking about plain old-fashioned rubbish.
Rubbish is smelly. Very smelly. It looks horrible. Ugly in fact. It attracts all sorts of weird beasties that you really wouldn't want hanging around anywhere near you at even the best of times, and I'm not talking about the local chavettes, surprisingly. It is also a given that the tax-paying individual (you and me) is not responsible for disposing of his or her own rubbish, because that is the job of the rubbish collecting services (binmen, for that is their title) who kindly and quietly do what must be a very shit and stinky job, because we, as taxpayers, get a large chunk of our earnings diverted to the local governement, whereupon it is distributed in various directions and for various tasks, one of which is in paying these poor sods to collect our mouldy old stinksacks every week of the year, and forever and ever, Amen.
It used to be the case that the council paid these men themselves, but for some reason (money) the government decided that was too fruitless and that too much money was being needlessly wasted on paperwork and bureaucracy, and so the binmen were privatised, and the responsibility for the collection of the rubbish was shifted onto the shoulders of private companies who were now being paid, using our taxes, to collect the rubbish for us, on the council's behalf.
Now, there have been numerous occasions, not least in Brighton (as kindly pointed out by Ms J Burchill in last weekend's Grauniad) where this process has gone properly tits up due to the private company or companies screwing with it's employees until they went on strike, thereupon resulting in the afore-mentioned rubbish not being collected for quite some time, until a resolution was reached and the binmen returned to their jobs and removed the offending articles from under my incredibly offended nose. When this happened in Brighton, the binmen offered to go and collect the rubbish for free because they were nice like that, but the council stopped them just in case it upset the company they had hired to pay these men to collect the rubbish in the first place! Ironic, no?
Anyway, in all the time I've been here, things have been pretty much acceptable. Aside from the Christmas holidays, where the binmen take a deserved rest, the rubbish collecting schedule changes due to God knows how many bank holidays getting in everyone's way, and I forget to put the rubbish out, everything has run as smoothly as can be expected. We don't have wheelie bins round here because there are so many flats that you'd need four bins per house, which would leave no pavement for anyone to walk on. Plus it's so near town that they'd probably be nicked, set on fire by a group of marauding eleven year-olds, or used by some skanky bastard to wheel their shopping home in. Or as a makeshift pram. Whatever, we haven't got them. So we, and our neighbours, who all live in flats too, have to store our rubbish up every week, then dump it out on the pavements on Sunday night for collection on Monday morning. Luckily, our landlord is a good chap, and has provided our house (made up of four flats) with some bins, which have been placed in the cellar outside our front door. Amazingly, none of the other flats bother using them (I've no idea why) so our rubbish always has a safe and sterile home until collection day comes.
Therefore, I can't imagine what would happen should the equilibrium be shattered by the government's frankly preposterous plan to make rubbish collections fortnightly rather than weekly. Firstly, the neighbours WOULD DEFINITELY start using the bins our landlord provided, and secondly, as I'm pretty sure that the landlords of all the other houses in the square aren't half as accommodating as ours is, the square we live in would almost certainly be full of piled-up binbags. Almighty slagheaps of filth would sprout up all over. The seagulls would have a field day! There would be mouldy chicken legs, yoghurt pots, dirty nappies - all sorts of filthy shit - strewn all over the place, and WE would have to live in this tip.
Apparently doing this would not be unhygienic. Well, sorry, but I beg to differ. This idea may be sort of okay if you live in a nice big house, with lots of lovely wheelie bins (probably with smiley faces on the side) and a recycling truck that drives round twice a week with a nice friendly driver called Kevin, but for anyone who lives anywhere near the middle of any modern British city (actually, any modern city, anywhere) then this idea is totally ridiculous. The cities are overcrowded and dirty enough as it is, so the last thing we, as it's inhabitants, need is to be surrounded by our own filth 24 hours a day.
Is this the kind of thing I pay over one thousand of my hard earned pounds every year in order to fund? Council tax is a terribly unfair form of individual taxation anyway (and I can totally understand why vast numbers of people were, and still are, up in arms about it), but whenI don't see the crime rates reducing, or public areas such as the seafront getting revitalised, I have to ask; where exactly does my money go?
If they do eventually introduce this hair-brained scheme I'd appreciate it if I can get a rebate on my tax, after all, they won't be using it for anything much.
100% should just about do it.
I very much grudge paying Council Tax, especially as I live alone and still have to pay 75% of the balance. As I live in a flat, I have a communal street bin which is always full of people's old sofas and things, and absolutely no recycling facilities. It is proper bobbins.
Posted by: Cat | March 22, 2007 at 12:27
Sweetie, can you have a quiet word with your cookies? They never remember me and it's giving me a right complex. Thank you.
On the subject of rubbish, I fucking hate the stuff. But recycling rocks. Erm... that is all.
:)
Posted by: furtive | March 22, 2007 at 13:03
Cat - This is what we pay our taxes for. Great isn't it?
Minx - Recycling does indeed rock. It's just very hard to do when you a) don't have a car, and b) haven't got any space in the flat to store all your empties. I want a recycling truck to come and help me out!
Posted by: Timbo | March 22, 2007 at 14:59
I salute those old Grannies going to prison for refusing to pay council tax. Sadly, I'm far too much of a capitalist chicken.
But in fact, this entry made me so angry, I'm off to start a fucking revolution!
Posted by: Morgan | March 22, 2007 at 17:34
I totally agree with you! We have fortnightly collections now, and it's awful.
I was going to write a longer comment, but it turned into a rant, so I made it into a blog post.
Posted by: Kate | March 22, 2007 at 20:32
Morgan - Grannies rock, or jailhouse rock? Whatever, I'm joining your revolution, and no bugger can stop me. Or us. Or it.
Kate - The Fuckers. I bet it's awful. Want to join our revolution?
Posted by: Timbo | March 22, 2007 at 23:44
The bins in Brighton are not privatised - they were brought back in house a few years ago.
Where they spend the money: http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/downloads/bhcc/summary_accounts_05-06_Final.pdf
Also, fortnightly collections (where they have been tried) roughly double recycling rates. I think that's a good thing.
Posted by: Anthony | March 26, 2007 at 19:15