Ian Gascoigne retweetledi
Drive-home thought…
Yes, Britain has become poorer.
Years of foolish decisions and short-sighted governments will do that to a country.
But the decline you see everywhere now isn’t just economic.
It’s something far more embarrassing.
We’ve lost our pride.
There was a time when people had less — smaller homes, older cars, wages that barely stretched to the end of the week — yet they still cared about their street, their town and the place they lived.
People swept their front step.
They cut the grass outside the gate.
And they didn’t throw rubbish out of the car window like a toddler emptying a toy box.
Now look around.
Fast-food boxes in hedges.
Energy drink cans rolling down the gutter.
Plastic bags tangled in trees like pathetic little flags of surrender.
If you want the clearest example, just take a look at motorway exit roads.
Come off any motorway in Britain and the verges look like someone’s opened the car window and emptied a bin bag at 70mph.
Coffee cups.
Burger cartons.
Plastic bottles.
Lottery tickets.
Entire takeaway meals apparently jettisoned mid-journey.
And every single one of those bits of rubbish came from someone sitting in a perfectly good car who simply couldn’t be bothered to take it home.
It’s not poverty.
It’s laziness and a complete lack of self-respect.
Previous generations didn’t need recycling apps, environmental campaigns, or a bin collection calendar that looks like the invasion plan for Normandy.
They just understood one simple rule:
Don’t live like a scruffy bastard.
Take your rubbish home.
Put it in a bin.
Show a bit of pride in where you live.
Because governments might make a country poorer…
…but only its people can turn it into a tip.
English
