Ellee Seymour

With the future of our post offices under threat, I’m wondering how long it will be before they are based at Tesco stores up and down the country.

This will be the perfect cop-out for Tony Blair, he can continue to ignore the plight of rural communities struggling to survive without facilities by claiming there is a post office on every street corner - at Tesco.

It seems like Blair is already brushing off a petition signed by 4 million people, that the service has been deliberately run down and their future does indeed look bleak.

Meanwhile, I predict that Tesco’s profits will continue to soar, their logo “every little helps”, will mean that they are lining their shareholders’ pockets even more.

Btw, retailers in Thailand defied martial law and took to the streets for a demo this week to protest against Tesco’s expansion plans there. This was a particularly brave step as the military imposed a ban on protests after seizing power in a coup last month.

It’s interesting how everyone is now talking about rubbish and how it should be disposed of. It is a very hot topic because if the UK fails to meet its recycling targets, then it will be heavily fined.

And now the Government has no choice but to act tough because it failed to deal with household waste and landfill diversion over the last decade, it failed to communicate with householders and get their support, our landfill sites are rapidly filling up, nobody wants incinerators - so heck, what other alternatives are there?

The microchipped wheelie bin seems to be the answer to their prayers - but one group of Norfolk councillors have made it plain what Tony Blair can do with them. And with bonfire night coming up shortly, the mind boggles!

Rebel councillors in South Norfolk are determined to fight any attempt to force them to use “bug bins“, even on a trial basis. They have urged other councils to stand their ground and refuse to take part in pilot schemes. They refuse to impose a pay-by-weight tax on their residents who can’t afford it.

So what does Minister Miliband say about this? How is he engaging with the public? Why, surprise surprise, there isn’t a word on this controversial subject that has made national headline news and created a very negative image for the scheme. His site looks even more dreary than ever.

Just to show you how poor the UK is at recycling (or how badly the Government has implemented it), here are the figures, we are third from bottom:

WASTE RECYCLED IN EU

Netherlands: 65%

Austria: 59%

Germany: 58%

Belgium: 52%

Sweden: 41%

Denmark: 41%

Luxembourg: 36%

Spain: 35%

Ireland: 31%

Italy: 29%

Finland: 28%

France: 28%

UK: 18%

Greece: 8%

Portugal: 3%

Source: IPPR

So let’s give the Government a hand with this, do you have any innovative ideas to boost recycling? For example, I have heard that disposable nappies are recycled in The Netherlands, the EU’s good boys, they are collected from the kerbside and dismantled and given a new lease of life.

Or should we reward good recyclers with discount shopping vouchers, like they do in America? What are your ideas, or examples of good practice, that we could follow too?