shopping bags

Can you believe it I hear Victor Meldrew say. Sainsbury's gives out 1.6bn plastic bags every year, Asda 1.8bn and Tesco a whopping 4bn.

Apparently 13,000,000,000 bags are given away to shoppers every year.

One Friday in April Sainsburys decided there would be no free plastic bags to encourage shoppers to use reusable bags which for one day were provided free. They normally cost 10p.

How pathetic is that. I can personally assure Sainsburys that if their plastic bags are not free I will not suddenly go shopping at Tesco, Asda, Waitrose or Morrisons.

And then there is that famous bag lady Kate Moss. Apparently when "I'm not a plastic bag" went on sale stores were given only 40 each of this limited edition "bucket bag" design accessory made popular by the good KM and other trendies.

Can we hope that when Gordon the green engine takes over in Downing Street he might follow the lead of the Irish and tax the retailers who provide those bags. 10p a bag. That would soon see a change.

And in the meantime I am happy for to endorse a new designer bag under the Gallifrey label: guaranteed to last through nine regenerations.