Talking Rubbish

It was good to hear that Eric Pickles has officially scrapped Labour's preposterous bin tax. I'm all for recycling, but using tagged, chipped, electronically tracked bins as an excuse effectively to spy on and surcharge people on their already astronomical local taxes severely damaged the integrity of a what is, at least on the surface, a decent cause. An incentive scheme is a far more sensible idea if we really must go down this road.

Personally, I think recycling is a bit of a scam as it is has been permitted to develop as an the industry thanks largely to the previous administration's cavalier approach to all things concerning private companies earning public money, civic duty and civil liberties. Currently, huge private firms hoover up council contracts and then make a heck of a lot more money out of waste management via exploitation of what should be, as I said, a good cause, namely recycling. Consequence? Hardly anything is actually recycled in this country as a proportion of the total and yet we are already paying far more for the privilege of having our household waste taken away. Pickles' idea therefore seems to be the best of a bad set of options. If people are to be forced to pay more for refuse collection, and forced to sort out their own rubbish, then yes, some kind of payback incentive is a reasonable idea. Maybe it should go further and become a full rebate for getting your recycling 100% right. That would be a real incentive and prove the sincerity of any council's recycling motive.

Predictably on the Today programme this morning, John Humphreys seemed quite keen to attack even this popular and modest Tory government policy by trying to argue the toss with a pretty no-nonsense Norfolk councillor who had only briefly looked at the Windsor and Maidenhead pilot scheme on which the new government policy is apparently based and was having none of Humphrey's puffed-up, scornful nonsense. Humphreys eventually seemed to realise he was talking rubbish and marginally altered his inappropriately confrontational tone towards the end. In fact, I'd say he was pretty comprehensively 'owned' by whoever that interviewee was, actually, and it was a very pleasant experience for this listener. I've never really heard anyone who likes the sound of his own voice more than Humphreys, apart from, possibly, David Dimbleby. Oh, and Paxman. Not forgetting Marr who's shaping up as another fine lefty BBC windbag as well. But that's another story, I suppose.

Whatever anyone thinks about the abolition of the bin tax proposals, this to me is another example of the Tories trying to right Labour's wrongs. It's therefore worth praising just on those grounds, even if it is merely a shuffle in the right direction when it comes to this country's sorry record on recycling, value for money for local services and councils' continuing erosion of privacy and individual rights (including the rights guarding against trespass by council officials), and local government 'snooping'. In the end, that's perhaps what was at the heart of this issue, not recycling. In that sense, what Pickles has done is to begin the process of tackling the surveillance mentality of far too many local authorities and to reframe the authoritarian zeitgeist that prevailed under Labour in a small state philosophy that should help to bring about a shift towards a freer society. I have no doubt that this is his aim, and it's laudable in its libertarianism.

Whether he achieves any more than making sure our bins continue to be dumb trash cans rather than being permitted to evolve into spying robots working for the state remains to be seen. But it's a start.

Freedoms You've Lost

Believe me, there's a long list - and they all mount up!

Philip Johnson gives us a rundown of some of the things we all could do before new liebour came to power. And there I was thinking it was only me that felt better off, happier and far more free before these bastards fooled the country into voting them in, and then launched their all-out war on civil liberties. This list is certainly not comprehensive, I might add!

» Smoke in a pub or on a railway platform in the open air in the middle of the countryside, or at a covered bus stop, or in your own car if it is used for work, or in your own house if it is used as an office where outsiders may come.

» Own a horse, donkey or Shetland pony without possessing a passport carrying a picture of the animal.

» Ride off with a pack of hounds in pursuit of a fox or stag.

» Play the piano in a pub without an entertainment licence.

» Stage more than 12 events a year at, for instance, a school or church hall at which alcohol may be served without a full licence.

» Set off a firework after midnight or be in possession of a firework if aged under 18 at any time other than the period around Bonfire Night and New Year's Eve.

» Own a pistol for any purpose, including sport target practice.

» Stage a protest of any sort, even if alone, within 1km of the Palace of Westminster, without the authority of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner.

» Fish in the River Esk without authorisation.

» Enter the hull of the Titanic without permission from the Secretary of State.

» Import into England potatoes which a person knows to be or has reasonable cause to suspect to be Polish potatoes.

» Obstruct the work of the Children's Commissioner for Wales.

» Imbibe an alcoholic drink on a London Underground train or bus.

» Keep a car on your own driveway without tax, even if it not being used, without filling in a form.

» Sell a grey squirrel (though you can kill one).

Before you say you support any or all of them (and one of them is BoJo's handiwork, I seem to recall), think about the principles: civil liberties are there to protect individuals and minority groups generally from the intrusion of the state. That's why statist Labour has always found them to be incompatible with their ridiculous ideologically authoritarian view of society and the 'role' of the state in it, especially now. Johnson's conclusion:

Labour has created new offences at twice the rate of the previous Tory administration, which was bad enough in this regard, and it has done so at an accelerating pace. Now you may support some or all of these new laws. What cannot be denied is that we have had a frenzy of law-making that has changed the character of the nation in a way that many of us neither expected nor wanted – even those who voted Labour (especially those who voted Labour, perhaps).

The first thing any new government must do is audit and then abolish any and all of Labour's legislation which is deemed either offensive to common sense or impinges on civil liberties, or both. This means that those terms - common sense and civil liberties - which were once taken for granted in what once was our far more free society, will need to be redefined after the constant and determined assault on them from the Left over the past twelve years.

The next election should be fought on this ticket just as much as an anti-corruption and economic one. The next government will represent nothing less than 'regime change' (from elective dictatorship back to democracy!). The role of Europe in this disturbing trend will need to be carefully examined, too, of course.

First, though, fight for the freedoms you've lost: kick this government out!

==Update 9.11pm==
I missed this excellent piece by Iain Dale on the subject of Labour's assault on liberty and the need for the opposition parties to stand on a civil liberties agenda. I highly recommend it.

==Update 2==
Hattip to Old Holborn for this chilling video.

Remember, the system isn't regulated and the police keep your DNA even if you're innocent (like all the people featured in the clip, for instance).