Moan, Moan, Moan, Moan…

“People”.. “People” annoy me at times. One thing wrong with a lot of the British public is that we moan. We moan and moan and moan about anything and everything. Take for example my local free newspaper. This week there’s been the usual car accidents, thefts, burglaries etc however the front page is yet again dedicated to …… maggots.

Due to the hot weather maggots have appeared in the wheelie-bins that people collect their rubbish in. Also, due to the drive to cut waste, bins are now only collected every two weeks with recyclable items collected weekly. It’s a fair measure and one which people here in Lichfield have now got used to. We’re one of the best cities for recycling now, however the heat had caused a few maggots to appear in the bottom of the “regular” wheelie-bins. The result? Uproar. The word “fury” seems to be on the front of every local paper and every letters page as people complain about the smell and the unwelcome visitors in their bins.

This gets on my nerves. Why are people moaning so much? They’re spending time writing to the paper when what they should be doing is getting off their fat arses and cleaning the bins. But no, it continues week on week…

“Ugh ugh.. But the council should clean my bin, I pay council tax and they should because I say so.. end of story.”

Nobody seems to remember how things used to be before these posh wheelie-bins were introduced. Bags and bags of rotting, wet, split plastic sacks would pile up outside your house being ripped open by cats and birds. But sure, that was never a problem was it?

So today it’s a slightly bigger issue. UK airports are on high alert following the arrest of several suspects by anti-terrorist police who say they have foiled a suspected plot to blow up aircraft. It’s understood the aim was to detonate bombs smuggled on board flights to the United States in hand luggage. The government have decided to add extra security at all UK airports – no hand baggage is being allowed in aircraft cabins apart from wallets and various sanitary items. In my mind it’s a sensible move, however it’s sparked “outrage” with passengers who’ve already started moaning and whinging about it.

Don’t get me wrong – I do have sympathy for mothers with young children. Being left with little or nothing to entertain their child on a long journey (toys etc) isn’t going to be fun. However the reaction of the public is amazing at times..

“I fly around the world to photograph countryside, cities, people, and wildlife. I’m not a professional, and the camera equipment I carry is my own.

I can’t imagine putting several thousand pounds’ worth of kit into checked baggage; it would surely come out in bits!

So, yes, for me, hand baggage is essential!

I just hope this madness is over by next week!”

Madness? Madness is it? So, if none of this extra security had taken place and you’d sat next to some bloke carrying a bottle of petrol you’d think, “I’m sure glad they let him on with that, stopping him would have been madness because then I might have to stick my camera in the luggage. Pfff .. I’m not doing that! No way!”… Idiots..

“How is it that taking everything of passengers and putting it in the hold makes the aircraft safer?”

GEeezzz.. are you seriously that stupid ? Think about it, go on. Think about it a bit.

“This just shows how bad UK security is at airports. Also, when you get on the plane crew don’t seem to be bothered with what you carry either.”

Rubbish, absolute rubbish. Compared to internal flights in the USA our security and safety checks on flights are excellent. I’ve been on US flights where people carry suitcases on as hand luggage and pre-flight checks by crew (American Airlines) never actually happened. I’ve taken off two or three times on American Airlines where crew have done no seat-belt checks, seat-backs are tilted back, tray-tables are down, rubbish is falling out of open toilet doors and fire-exit doors are completely blocked during take-off and landing.

“As for car keys – What do I do about getting home when my suitcase goes missing?”

Fair point yes, however you’re a bit wrong. Car keys are allowed, it’s just the electrical key-fobs that aren’t at the moment. We’ve really got to look at the bigger picture. It’s like saying, “How am I supposed to get to work” if all cars were banned to stop the polar ice-caps melting in a way.

Link – BBC News