Osborne's recycling giveaway is actually an Age of Austerity measure

Ian Walker

Reward desired behaviour. Punish undesired behaviour. And, this is the bit the socialists never get, leave a big gap in the middle for people to get on with their lives.

Perfect conservatism, in my opinion.

Frank P

Matthew Taylor = pseudo sociological squit. Another poseur bred in the rarefied atmosphere of the think tanks of counter- culture Nulaboratories. Genealogically the fruit of a poisoned tree. I'm beginning to understand where you lot get your ideas - by osmosis. A lost generation, indeed.

Nicholas

Unfortunately it still smacks of gimmick rather than serious policy, still pays lip service to the climate change scam now thoroughly exposed for the nonsense it is and still requires our wheelie bins to be chipped, tagged and monitored (together with our personal details) on a "government" database.

I think there are much more important issues for Britain, but I hardly dare mention them in the rarified political atmosphere of vouchers for re-cycling.

Publius

Sounds more like yet another tax on those who don't "recycle", and yet another excuse for surveillance.

How long before people are arrested for failing to recycle. That would make the police's DNA harvesting easier too.

Perhaps, while we're at it, we can "nudge" people into accepting microchips implanted under their skin "for their own safety".

Occasional Ostrich

There never was a truly valid reason for getting rid of "thruppence back on the empties".

Verity

"I think there are much more important issues for Britain, but I hardly dare mention them in the rarified political atmosphere of vouchers for re-cycling."

So, correctly, writes Nicholas.

The Tories under Dave must be the most insubstantial political party in the history of the world. Bereft of a single thought, a single aim (other than getting Dave's shoes under the desk at No 10, and that is doomed disappointment), a single guiding principle, a single clue that they understand the history of our country and/or its current dire plight,they boldly focus on tiny politically correct initiatives, little fripperies of twinky little ideas while our country sinks into lawlessness and the ordure of multiculturalism, enforced by a fascist police force and thought monitors. And the would-be Chancellor, once a great office of state, pencils out little schemes for recycling - a non-subject popular with the Left - and tweaks and fiddles around with the amount each family will be paid for being good little soldiers of the state.

Has there ever been a more disastrous, inept, vision-free Leader of the Conservative Party? Even the Raving Monster Loony Party had better ideas. RIP, Screaming Lord Sutch. You would have served us better than what we today laughingly refer to as "Tories".

Occasional Ostrich

Nicholas
November 24th, 2009 11:50am

Whether the AGW industry has been wholly discredited or not is irrelevant; what has spiralled ridiculously over the last 50 years is the waste by retailing industry (if it deserves the name) and, it seems, by each and every household in the land. The cost structures that make it less expensive to send our garbage to China for manual recycling are one case in point. Another is the fact that it is often cheaper to dump and replace white goods and domestic electronics than it is to repair them (or to have them repaired, given that is often difficult to find a repairman whom one trusts not to rip one off). Council recycling schemes, such as ours, reject cartons that the manufacturer has clearly designated as recyclable, on grounds that are impossible to understand or condone. Recycling policies should address these for a start and then we might start getting somewhere.

David Parker

The demand, from China and elsewhere, for recyclable materials has recently dropped dramatically due to the world recession.

As a result many Councils are unable to dispose of this waste and are either having to rent storage on disused airfields in empty warehouses or send it to landfill, in both cases incurring additional costs which will have to be recovered through increases in the Council tax.

This appears to be a badly thought out green gimmick.

Dorothy Wilson

To lighten the debate slightly, there is nothing new about paying for re-cycling. I seem to remember ages ago a young neighbour, nicknamed Chummy, used to collect pop bottles from underneath the cricket pavilion to get a penny back on each towards his pocket money.

What goes around, comes around ....

Marcher Baron

Clearly a metro-central initiative; my nearest M&S is 16 miles away!

Holly ......

DP.
Unlike the smack in the face Labour option..
...TAX....FINE....COURTS...for leaving the lid up...(SEE BELOW)
Yup the Labour option is the best way.
(BELOW)
ALL YOU BLOKES TAKE NOTE...LABOUR HAVE HARMAN REMEMBER.

TGF UKIP

Nicholas and Verity have it spot on. Simply more posturing in the desperate quest for the N. London Waitrose vote. You can almost hear the votes leeching away from this bunch of ta-tas.

Rex Burr

People who are able to put the most in their recycling bin are the same people who consume the most. Therefore the scheme becomes a reward for conspicuous consumption. As a pensioner I do not consume much and therefore do not produce much for recycling but some of my council tax would be going to wealthy, high consumers. Where is the justice in that?
Also the scheme removes all incentive for either retailers or shoppers to reduce the amount of packaging. Council cash goes to those who buy the most packaging and it comes back as vouchers to the retailers who sell the most packaging.
Reward the wealthy, charge the poor.
It's just another government scheme that has not been thought through.