There was a time when politicians clashed over the great issues of state power and liberty, public and private ownership, relief of want, war, universal suffrage and class.
Now they argue over rubbish. OK, it is an aspect of a great issue, namely global warming, but there is something distinctly unedifying about watching alleged statesmen and women wallowing around in the garbage of local politics or the politics of local garbage.
This is an issue that exercises us all. How often our bins are collected; which boxes we should fill with paper and which with glass; what we can take to the dump and what we should recycle. Few subjects get us more animated, especially when we are told we might be taxed more if we don’t get it right. For many people, especially those without children or living alone, the one function that they look to local government to perform on their behalf is the removal of rubbish. They believe they pay for this through their council tax. Some believe it is all they pay for through their council tax. So it is a pretty incendiary subject and one that has lit the flames of political argument at Westminster.
Where recycling rubbish is concerned, we are light years behind many of our European Union neighbours, for whom (encouraged through a range of incentives and penalties) it is now second nature. In Britain, some three-quarters of household waste is still dumped in landfill sites, compared with 38% in France and just 20% in Germany.
An entrenched ‘throwaway’ culture needs to be challenged — but it is a wary politician who steps into this quagmire.
So far, David Miliband is proving to be up to the task. His statement to the Commons announcing the government’s new waste strategy was a masterclass in how to handle such a difficult subject without frightening the horses too much — no mean feat given his relative inexperience. What Miliband had grasped in drawing up the strategy was that people will respond better to the carrot than the stick, not least if they feel they have already been beaten hard enough by local taxes.
His proposals emphasised the importance of incentives for recycling rather than penalties for not. But these will have to be proper rewards, in the form of rebates from council tax already paid, if they are to work.
The concern is that the incentive will turn out to be a lower additional charge for the greener households, the equivalent of getting 50% knocked off your parking fine for swift payment.
Miliband said his proposals would be revenue neutral, implying no further rise in council tax to pay for rubbish collection. But this, of course, does not mean there will not be extra charges for everyone. It is possible to imagine a revenue neutral scheme that requires a charging system to pay for collection and administration, backed up by fines that many will come to resent.
Householders will also ask why the commercial producers of the waste they are required to deal with are not being targeted more severely. The ridiculous amounts of packaging with the weekly shop are the real problem. Yet the waste strategy sets out only aspirational aims for commercial waste backed by a proposal (subject to analysis) for higher packaging recycling targets from 2008.
This seems pretty meek stuff given the pressures, including fines, on the rest of us to become greener. Why should the producers escape?
Nevertheless, Miliband has grasped the nettle. His task is to get the dirty man of Europe to clean up his act. His targets mean that we will need to halve the amount of household waste each of us produces that is not reused, recycled or composted, within ten years or so.
The politics of this issue are complex. Nobody wants to be seen to be against helping to save the planet. Yet it is difficult for opposition parties to resist exploiting voter concern, even anger, at losing their once-a-week refuse collection or being charged for something they feel they have already paid for.
In the recent council elections, the great dustbin issue loomed large in many English authorities, though its impact on the outcome is difficult to assess. Some authorities have reverted to weekly collections after local pressure.
But this is as it should be. The other refreshing aspect of Miliband’s strategy was its emphasis on local decision-making. Within an overall framework, councils should be free to achieve targets as they see fit by persuading residents these are necessary and by offering tax rebates. There will be scope for neighbouring authorities to join forces in commercial ventures for dealing with waste to recover some of the extra costs involved.
Our behaviour has to change and, if the strategy is implemented intelligently, everyone will feel they are playing a part in an important activity. But if it turns into another opportunity to clobber overtaxed householders, then it will leave a nasty smell in the air.
