Pork Pies and Pickles

A long traditional match of two different food stuffs seems to have entered the political arena this week. For many years we have associated Pork Pies with that other cold food, a jar of Pickles. It appears Eric Pickles is carrying on that tradition with his love of Pork Pies.

This week Mr Pickles has come back with his misinformation about weekly waste collections and basic rights. In the past he has claimed that it is a 'basic right' that we have weekly (non-recycling) waste collections. If this is true, is the fat man going to take this campaign to the United Nations and have a mandate drawn up so that the 6 billion (and counting) humans on this planet all have this basic right??

The lack of logic and misinformation in claiming weekly waste collections are a basic right is astounding. Hiding behind the 'carrot' of £250 million that Pickles found, is a political ideology intent on going against waste reduction and environmentally sustainable management of waste. The ideology states that choice comes before the environment and the vocal minority have a right to force weekly collections on us, just because they are often kick up a fuss with their local MP or councillor.

Giving people what they desire often has damaging consequences. Certainly in Havant Borough the system we have works for the vast majority, but Pickles does no one any favours by using national funding to influence local issues. Pickles is using central government funding to manipulate 'localism' and to do what central government want, this is left wing ideology wrapped up in a thin layer of Conservative packaging.

Updates:
Backlash against Pickles in the Twittersphere - http://www.londonlovesbusiness.com/634.article

Press Association - Weekly bin funding plan attacked

Dorothy Thornhill, deputy leader of the LGA Lib Dem group, said: "Eric Pickles has revealed his true colours as an extreme centraliser. His statement flies in the face of the coalition Government's commitment to localism. It appears that local services must be provided according to Eric Pickles' demands." 

Business Green - Waste Industry Blasts Pickle's Weekly Collection Plans

In a statement, the CIWM (Chartered Institute of Waste Management) said the £250m could have been better spent on widening the range of materials collected for recycling, especially food waste, which it said was the main area of householder concern regarding collection frequency.