I am a little confused about amnesties.
I know I should be writing about Jeremy Corbyn, refugees or pigs, but I think they are being more than adequately covered. Commentary on amnesties, however, is somewhat sparse at present.
My local council is keen on them. I say keen, but that may be overstating it. They are keen in a lackadaisical, intermittent sort of way.
Every now and then they emerge from a kind of dream-state and think: Wait a minute, we don’t allow people to get rid of paint, wood preservatives, weed killers, thinners, varnishes and household cleaning products at any of our tips. Strangely, they think (I am surmising here), there seems to be an increasing amount of paint, wood preservatives, weed killers, thinners, varnishes and household cleaning products dumped in the countryside. Can there be a connection?
And then they think an amnesty would be a good idea. So they arrange “weekend-long” events at remote waste disposal sites where such items can be left for free. The bold type is theirs, as if it is a huge privilege for us to travel to these remote sites and deposit items which we quite legitimately own and cannot get rid of in any other legal way.
As far as I am concerned, a proper amnesty involves pardon and forgiveness. Why do I need pardon or forgiveness for owning paint? Or household cleaning products? Isn’t it simply that the council have failed to provide a proper service for getting rid of these items and are trying to pin the blame on us?
By calling it an amnesty they are transferring guilt from themselves to us. I am sure you will agree with me that this is shocking. Free the paint owners! Give us a tip! Sign here. I would start a petition if it was not too much trouble.
I may or may not take part in a Household Hazardous Waste Amnesty event. If I do, it does not mean I am going along with this travesty. I am simply dumping paint. Or household cleaning products. Do not read anything more into it than that.