Waste of Space...

...According to Bro. George, who deals with these things, most if not all of the paper emanating from the Government is so much waste.

I blame - as does he - T. Blair in general and the Internet in particular. T. Blair for being the control freak that he is needing ceaselessly to churn out orders, instructions, advice or guidances to all and sundry about each and every aspect of our lives.

Not a local service can be trusted to function on its own, merrily attending to its tasks and purposes, but it must be deluged with an unending torrent of utter guff about how to do its business; much of it also requiring said local services to produce an equal and equally unneeded or unheeded constant stream of reports, reviews or other rubbish that no one reads.

The Internet of course has merely allowed such nonsense to expand exponentially - ease of travel simply adding to the volume of traffic. Log-jam on the information highway.

So far, so plain ordinary rant.

Today, we hear of further delusional, irrational behaviour - as if we would be surprised.

A Government document comes belting down the tube, boasting on page one that it is made of 70% recycled paper. Well hurrah. On the last page there is also a cute logo urging us all to recycle the whole document once read. (Not one assumes 'file in the usual place' - i.e. the waste bin - but some more worthy cause such as...well I can't think of any this moment, but I am confident there are some somewhere. Cat litter trays perhaps?)

What renders the whole exercise so sadly pointless is that this very last logo-bearing page is just that - a page of paper with a 'recycle this paper' logo on it. Had the logo appeared at the bottom of the text of the thing that would have been one thing, but to waste an entire page of paper telling us - needlessly of course, either we recycle or we don't thank you - not to waste paper is plain bonkers.

The great sadness of course is the rank arrogance and deep stupidity combined that both encourages and permits such behaviour. That is what so rankles - arrogant or stupid one could live with either, but put the two together in one seamless whole and one is stymied!

So what can one do? Burn these ninnies as latter day witches? Tempting prospect. (Must somewhere to be found a National Strategy for Effective Witch Resolution Options or somesuch.)

Bro. George, being a less bloodthirsty fellow than myself, is minded to post the page back to the Government department that sent it. In principle a neat, ironic gesture. Sadly though one can be assured the recipients simply wouldn't understand his simple point. They lack the simplicity to be simple.