Envirotyranny in Zanzibar
An odd story over at the BBC site, involving a ban on plastic carrier bags for environmental reasons. Given that the island relies on tourism, and they cannot afford to clear away each day's rubbish fully, I have some sympathy, especially if paper bags are freely available. However, there's a silly bit. A very silly bit:
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Having checked, the average Tanzanian gets by on a dollar a day. So, for easy maths, lets say that if that law came in here, the average Briton would be forking out about £150,000 for having a plastic bag.
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on Friday, November 10, 2006 at 4:08 pm.
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hows this
the average tanzanian collects all those plastic bags and resells them to tescos or sainsburys?
coloured chap earns a few bob and we all get to feel good about saving the planet.
I have tried, and failed, to pin down the great story from a few years back about the planet being awash with carrier bags for some pet shop in the UK - yellow jobs with a red parrot or somesuch. If I remember correctly, they ordered a thousand from a factory in China, and the factory got the order wrong by a factor of a 100,000 or somesuch, so the Chinese made the best of a bad job and sold them cheaply to anyone who would have them. Apparently they crop up all over the place.
Watch this space , with gas guzzler charges parking permits , fines licences and the new devil tax on house prices ,we are looking at about 300% up on your local tax for a driver with a mortgage .
I may get upset.
Oh sorry , it went
bag .. money , my money , someone taking it , tax.
Doh ray me me me me me
Bit of a Pavlov's dog reaction there N...
Anyway, off out for a few jars with Dizzy.
beat this for a polythene bag anecdote...
The man behind the koenigsegg super car made a large chunk of his fortune selling UK supermarket carrier bags to residents of baltic states who thought of them as a staus symbol.
If anybody else has a better piece of plastic bag triva I would like to see it.
Apart from the one about turtles eating them thinkng they are jelly fish.
Quality tale Mr H. Much appreciated.
This week Gustav Metzger ( 80) won £30,000 from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award For Visual Arts .
His " Auto destructive Art", being a bin liner filled with paper, was famously thrown out of the Tate Britain, by a cleaner who mistook it for rubbish.
Do I get a prize? Bet its rubbish
I'm really worried about the whole issue of climate change and the enviornment. It is effectivly being used to simply get more and more money off people, nothing more, nothing less.
Labour wants to do it as it is simply another way to force forward their leftish agenda; the Lib Dems want it because they want to be seen to be eco friendly and quite frankly Chris Hughne (what sort of name is that anyway?)finds it hard to think even when he is using the collective braincell; and the Tories want it because the Lib Dems suggested it and Dave wants us to look 'progressive'.
What? I'm tired, grumpy, and ill. It's my right to spout off like some deranged old codger.
My point is the environment issue has been highjacked. You don't solve environmental problems by taxing us to death and hitting the poorest.
Opportunists! charlatans! knaves! scoundrels! villians! rogues! We should send them all back to the firey pits from whence they came.
-scowel-
Gah! A multitude of errors! That's it! I'm going to try and sleep again...
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