British sense of outrage over bin collections

I am a great fan of Jasper Gerard, who writes a page in the Observer. One good thing is that his page diverts my attention from Nick Cohen’s writing, which I blithely ignore unless a fellow blogger alerts me to some embarrassing logical inconsistency within it.

Any road up (another one of my phrases which I am now rationing to one a week), Gerard had me laughing out loud today over the current wheely bin controversy:

The British remain unmoved by compulsory ID cards and wall-to-wall CCTV, but put spy cameras in their bins and they feel more victimized than the Tolpuddle Martyrs. Axe weekly collections and the WI thinks it is refighting the American war of independence: no taxation without collection! Ask them to chuck a few cartons in a recycling bag and life seems so traumatic there is talk of the court of human rights.

Mention of the latter court always brings a smile to my face. When I was a councilor on the Planning and Highways committee, you always knew when a complainant had flown off into “over the top” mode when they mentioned a possible appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, as they did at least twice a year. Another sure sign that complainants had eaten too many iron filings for breakfast was if they started to use words which I had to check in the dictionary, like “nugatory”.

Survey: 60% support local income tax to replace council tax

A BBC poll reports that 59% of respondents think the council tax is unfair and 60% want it replaced with a local income tax.