The Scottish Government are deeply frustrated. They’re deeply frustrated by the UK government’s failure to allow them to implement laws passed by a majority of MSPs. They’re also deeply frustrated by the Scottish public’s inability to see the multi-cultural and anti-discriminatory benefits of women with willies and the health benefits of walking miles to the nearest recycling point with your load of glass bottle returns.
So, what do a bunch of immature government ministers do when they’re deeply frustrated? Well, of course, they lash out.
However, they can’t lash out at Westminster. They’ve tried that before, but unfortunately (for them), Westminster has a bigger lash available so it did them no good. They will always end up on the losing side.
So, the Scottish Government have decided to punish the public because the public find it much more difficult to fight back. They can show the public who’s boss without too much danger to their egos.
As they haven’t yet been allowed to re-introduce the death penalty for misgendering their ultra-sensitive, wee wokey friends, their latest Green-inspired wheeze is to give Local Authorities the power to introduce financial and potentially criminal penalties for misgendering recyclable rubbish. If you look at a piece of plastic packaging and your eyes tell you this is recyclable waste, but someone from the council has a different view, you might be fined up to about £60 for putting it into your recycling bin. Do it a second time and you may be referred to the police for possible criminal prosecution.
Now, I hear you say, surely there’s nothing wrong with asking householders to be careful filling their recycling bins, with a wee incentive if necessary.
But wait, aren’t there snags?
A lot of plastic packaging isn’t marked as recyclable or not, so you’re left to guess whether you can put it in your recycling bin. You may opt for the safe choice and consign it to landfill, defeating the whole purpose of recycling. Or you may think it fits the local authority criteria for recycling and take the risk that it’s OK. A risk that might cost you £60.
All local authorities in Scotland have their own rules about what they’ll accept and that probably won’t cover every type of packaging marked as recyclable. Even when you’ve learned them, the local authority’s rules are unlikely to cover every possible type of packaging, meaning you will have to contact them to get a definitive ruling or face another £60 mistake.
How will the local authority know you were responsible for putting the packaging in the bin? As bins are generally put outside at night and are not locked, the opportunity is there for neighbours or others to put their overflow in your bin. Will the presence of the packaging in your bin be sufficient to levy a fine? Will you be required to prove the identity of the real culprit to escape punishment?
How will the local authority know what’s in the bin? You can’t expect the refuse collectors to check every bin for incorrect content. It’s impracticable, it would take far too long. Another method would be to have a group of bin inspectors who would tour round the area making random inspections of bins, though even that would be difficult if they were expected to view everything in the bin. Of course, the cost of the inspectors would have to be paid for by finding enough people to fine.
These are real problems making it more difficult for householders to stick to the rules and avoid costly mistakes. These are real problems that really need to be addressed before implementation, but which almost certainly won’t be because it isn’t in the government’s and local authority’s financial interests to make the scheme easy to use. The Scottish Government are searching for a win to make up for recent setbacks, but you have to wonder if, like so many of their recent initiatives, this has all the hallmarks of policy announced without considering all the possible complications. Or is it just another policy to be announced but quietly dropped in a year or so, having done its job of creating a virtuous headline.
BEAT THE CENSORS
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SALVO
The progress of Salvo has been the most encouraging development since 2022. It is doing sterling work educating Scots about the Claim of Right and spelling out what it means that the Scottish people are sovereign, not any Parliament. Salvo has joined with Liberation.scot to develop campaigns the results of which will be available soon.
LIBERATION.SCOT
We are seeking to build up liberation.scot to at least 100,000 signatures as part of our plan to win recognition at the UN as an official liberation movement. We intend to internationalise our battle for independence and through the setting up of the Scottish National Council we will develop our arguments to win progress in the international courts. Please help by signing up at liberation.scot. The membership of liberation.scot is also where the first members of Scottish National Congress will be balloted for selection.
Angry Weegie 