We've bin watching you

Reports in the Sunday press that English local authorities are bugging bins to let councils monitor council taxpayers’ recycling behaviour, (fines attached for non-compliance) come as no surprise. This kind of east-of-the-Iron Curtain behaviour is second nature to the people we elect and the people they employ. It’s only a matter of time till the practice spreads to Scotland where, let there be no doubt, it will meet with approval and a dollop of taxpayers’ money to jump on the bandwagon, if not the refuse collection lorry. Scotland's Nicotine Nazis after all have had their way with smoking, in barring it and our Health mouthpiece says that no one has asked him to bring it back. It shows you the kind of company he keeps and the kind of society we are.

A favourite Scottish ruling-class pastime is to appoint 'tsars' of something or other to oversee the progress of their preconceived and barely consulted plans, targets and strategies. No one knows much about them or how they are appointed. Children have one, walking in the woods has one too. There are supposed to be fourteen of them. Place a bet on this though. There will a 'tsar' for bins, with responsibility for bugging. Surely the stand-out for the job will be Bugs Binnie?