21st. May 2008

It's enough to make me wish that this newspaper was called the Bolton Bugle. How easy life would be, I could be handing out dustbin lids left, right, and centre, with very little effort.
In the absence of suitable candidates in Salford or Wigan my first two dustbin lids go to Bolton.
This week I kill two birds with one stone because the two parties involved in the same incident are as bad if not worse than each other.
The first DBL goes to Bolton Gestapo, sorry I mean Council, for prosecuting a young mother for putting out her dustbin a day early. Bins should be put out before 7.30 on the day of collection, this means that those unfortunate enough to live in Bolton must get up early on bin days, regardless of the fact that they might have been working late the night before, not to mention been for a night out. I say not to mention because I get the impression that the USS Bolton authorities would frown on such activities as a night out. What a pitty they can't be so dilligent when someone sells them something cobbled up in the garden shed.
The second DBL goes to the other party involved that being Bolton Magistrates who handed out a fine of almost £300.00 for this heinous crime. The reason given for such heavy handed actions is that bins left out at night are being set alight by vandals.
Let me get this right, its OK for the vandals to set the bins alight, but not OK for residents to put temptation in their path.
Does this mean that if I am run over by a drunken driver in Bolton I will be prosecuted for being in his way, and the drunken driver will be free to run over anyone else who just happens along?
No doubt many more DBLs will be winging their way to Bolton in the near future, the activities of the car park SS attendants are currently at the forefront of my mind.
Do you know anyone or any public body that deserves a DBL?
In the contact form select Contact Watchdog

Watchdog 21 May 2008

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21st June 2008

Still unable to find anyone in Boothstown who has done something stupid enough to receive a DBL award, I am again forced to look further afield. This week I didn’t need to look very far, no farther than my television.
Watching one of my favourite programmes Loose Women, I was amazed by the stupidity of both the producers, and the presenters, so once again I am awarding two DBL’s for the same incident. You will probably have guessed by now that I refer to the Joan Rivers affair.
The first DBL goes to the ITV bosses responsible for the show. What the hell are they thinking about, allowing a daytime chat show, with a live audience, to go out live, with no delay loop, in the first place? To make matters even worse, they knew that Joan Rivers was on this particular show, what did they expect, do these people not know who Joan Rivers is? Why did they not tell her that the show was absolute live?
So Dustbin Lid Award No. 1 goes to the producers of Loose Women, for their lack of knowledge about the content of the show that they are producing.
DBL No. 2 must go to the presenters of the show, Joan gave them enough warning that she was about to say something that should not be broadcast before the watershed, she may, or may not have known that the show was absolute live, but in the time that it took her to say: “Get ready to bleep this one out” the presenters could have easily stopped her from saying anything else, instead I guess that they were too busy practising the looks of surprise, and indignation, that they would show when they heard her inevitable comments.
Justenough space to slip in an extra DBL. No.3 goes to the bozo who gave the order to oik Joan off during the ads break, talk about closing the stable door. To put in Joan’s vocabulary he or she must be a prize p****ck. (**** by order of the editor).
Do you know anyone who deserves a DBL? Select contact us from the main menu on page 1, and select Contact watchdog for the form subject. Let me know who, or which organisation, is doing something daft.

1st July 2008
Now into my third DBL award and I have yet to find a suitable recipient in Boothstown, so this week I have decided to have a moan about private hire taxi drivers, and award them a collective DBL
Maybe I am older than most of my readers, so probably most of you will not remember the days when you rang for a taxi, it arrived outside your door, and the driver then did something that is unthinkable to-day. He got out of the car, rang your doorbell, escorted you to the car, opened the door for you to get into the car, and then closed it.
You don’t believe me, well I can assure you that it really did used to happen.
What happens to-day?
The taxi pulls up outside your door, the driver then sits there blowing the horn, to the annoyance of all your neighbours, and if you are not outside in a couple of minutes, he clears off. The latest craze seems to be asking for your mobile phone number and ringing you when the taxi arrives, at least this avoids annoying the neighbours especially late at night.
Private hire taxis also seem to be exempt from the vehicle lighting regulations, they are easily spotted at night by the missing rear light (very often the offside one) or the one headlight, or even a combination of both.
Then there is the very annoying habit of parking on the wrong side of the road at night with the headlight, or in some cases the headlights full on without any consideration for other drivers who are as Manfred Mann would say, Blinded by the light.
So this week a well deserved DBL goes to our private hire drivers, if you know of one who does not deserve this award please let me know,

PS I forgot to mention the indicators which never seem to work

November 2008

This months award goes to crew of the Recycle Wheelie bin collections in Boothstown. They empty the bins and then just leave them strewn around all over the place, leaving the people who pay their wages ( ratepayers ) to complete the job by sorting the bins out and putting them back in their rightful places. If they need some training as to how the job should be done, perhaps they could ask the crew who empty the black wheelie bins, and do a splendid job.

Are you tired of finding your coloured wheelie half way down the back? use the contact form to ask for one of my free " Put this bin back where you got it" stickers

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