WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?
Letter
Food Bins of the Past
Dear HIP
In reference to Dr Keogh’s great letter in HIP 310 (Food Waste Roll-out), the compostable bags for lining individual caddies are £3.75 for a roll of 25 – lasts a while, but still an added cost for cash-strapped families.
Also, our block has three wings, each with their own entrance, own refuse and own recycling bins. But I have just learnt that our wing is the only one to receive a communal bin and caddies – the other wings got nothing.
I was born in 1939. When we returned to Hastings after the war, rationing was still in force. Every street had its ‘pig bin’ for edible waste, and the farmer came round weekly in an old green lorry to collect it. I’m pretty sure we never put animal products in it – just vegetable matter – and no orange peel. But I can’t forget the horror of being sent over in summer and having to dodge swarms of fruit flies and the dreaded wasps, not to mention the smell! No compostable bags in those days, and fewer urban foxes.
I’m wondering if the present day wildlife is eating the bags along with the food, and how good or bad it is for them. Plenty to think about!
Rowanna Web
Letter
Holding to Account
Dear HIP
Bea Rogers objects to my attempting to hold Helena Dollimore MP to account for her voting record, arguing, effectively, that Ms Dollimore was just following orders (“to support the leader and Prime Minister, is not a matter of her individual position”, Letters, HIP 310).
It is a matter of public record that Ms Dollimore has repeatedly chosen to back positions – and, where called upon, vote with the government to support them – that many of her constituents strongly oppose.
For example: supporting government attacks on migrants, the disabled, free speech and the right to protest; backing the continued supply of UK arms to Israel; and failing to challenge the use of UK bases for Donald Trump’s illegal war on Iran or to oppose new climate-busting oil and gas extraction in the North Sea.
Moreover, in every one of these cases, at least some Labour MPs have taken a principled stand and opposed the government.
Unless voters know what their political representatives are actually up to, they cannot make informed decisions at election time.
That is democracy 101.
Gabriel Carlyle
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