Gum Control

‘THERE are only two things certain in life: Ken Livingstone’s refusal to apologise and David Beckham’s loyalty to his wife.

A piece of Britney Spears’s gum – or is it her brain?

Oh, and taxes.

And it is taxes we turn to now as we read in the Telegraph that council representatives from London, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast have joined forces to call for a chewing-gum tax.

At what the paper calls the first national ”gum summit”, the councils called for the introduction of a penny-a-packet tax on chewing gum.

They also want the boffins at firms like Wrigleys, which makes 90% of the estimated 935 million packets of gum chewed by Britons each year, to develop biodegradable gum and encourage responsible disposal of the masticated products.

But for now, the councils want for there to a levy placed on gum to help pay for the £150m a year it costs to strip the streets of the stuff.

And discarded gum is a problem, as the paper tells its readers that the London borough of Westminster has an average of 20 pieces of discarded gum for every square meter of pavement.

Of course, it would be preferable is people did not chew gum in public in the first place.

So, if possible, gum-chewers should deists from their anti-social habit and engage their mouths in doing something that can be cleaned up far easier.

Like smoking…’

Posted: 23rd, February 2005 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink