Three thoughts occurred to me today, as I was trying to squeeze a bag of rubbish into our overflowing wheelie bin. The reason it is overfilled is that Mrs Bishop forgot to put the bin out last week when she was doing the school run.

The first thought was this: if we are to move to fortnightly rubbish collections, and I forget to put my wheelie bin out, does that mean I could have four weeks worth of rubbish sitting outside? In mid summer?  A health hazard, surely?

The second thought was this:  how many bin men will be laid off as a result of only having to collect the rubbish fortnightly? What savings have been acheived in those councils (like Stephen Tall's Oxford) which have already instituted fortnightly collections?

The last thought was this: is the whole thing actually a way for the councils to deliver a worse service for the same cost, thus helping to secure their pensions?

God I'm getting cynical.