Finally a good policy from the government

Gosh it's been a while. Sorry. I'm studying for an OU course about International Development and I'm having to prioritise my spare time on that.

Anyway, I have decided to forgive the government for the increases on booze in the recent budget (14p on a bottle of wine!), in the light of the threatened plastic bag tax. Supermarkets have a year to introduce their own charges on "single use" carrier bags, and the bag tax will come in if this fails to cut consumption. Unusually, proceeds from the bag tax will go to environmental charities rather than just getting swallowed into the pot.

Although M&S have recently announced a 5p charge on plastic bags as part of their "Plan A", other supermarkets and high street stores have been slow to follow suit - indeed Tescos look like they are actively dragging their feet (their bags may be biodegradeable, but this is only part of the problem). So this move from the govenment is welcome.

In other ways, however, many envirnomental commentators have slated the budget as not going far enough. It is a little ridiculous that our plastic bag tax comes after China banned free bags, and 6 whole years after Ireland introduced a highly effective tax, to name a few. So come on, let's get a bit ahead of the programme....