Britain comments on Mumbai

How embarrassing to watch yet another british celeb talking rubbish (pardon

the pun);

1. The people recycling in Mubai are getting payed for an honest days work -

the alternative is no work and no food - Yes British people wouldn't stoop to

this lowly task but that's partly because British people get too many handouts

from the other British people who ARE willing to work for a living - on the

flip side, there are so many regulations regarding waste and health and safety

that individuals in Britain are not allowed to make a decision to make a

living from "shit" as Mr Mcloud so eloquently put it. Perhaps Mr McCloud

should be less judgemental and respect and admire the work ethic of the people

recycling in Mumbai but we've all gotten a bit above ourselves in this

glorious country.

2 Recycling isn't new, it used to happen in this country, One could visit

dumps and scrap yards (pre health and safety) and pick up what one needed.

Glass bottles were deposit paid and people bought good quality second hand

furniture with money not poor quality new "rubbish" with credit!

3. There would be more recycling here if it hadn't all been sewn up by big

business and local authorities and red tape quotas. It's difficult to find a

scrap merchant that will take your scrap metal now, most have deals with the

local authority who get scrap free of charge from unwitting citizens - thats a

disincentive to recycle.

4. Its not "poor" housing that made the high rise area look bad. If you stop

refuse collection for a few weeks in Britain you wont wait long before it gets

out of hand and come and look in the ditches full of rubbish in my rural area

to see that even people with transport (and good housing) that can get to the

local dump will just dump it - thats people the world over for you! I can show

you many a place (in Britain) where you will find people have simply thrown

their rubbish out the door into their garden or the street and we have

excellent public service. It would be more interesting to see him wander

around some of these places with his film crew!

5. Mr Mcloud seems to have a limited view of the world and is unable to put

things into the context of THIER environment instead of his own cushy one.

I cringed as I watched him insulting the endeavors of these hard working go

getters and at how he sneered at the man who owned the recycling business as

if he (the man) was exploiting the workers not exploiting the situation and

making a good situation out of a bad one. I am fed up with celebs looking down

their noses (unofficially on our behalf) at other nations, as if we are so much

better and Britain is perfect. We don't even build new houses on a large scale

with a life expectancy of more than thirty five years - maybe Mr Mcloud should

stick to his area of expertise (TV celeb moaning melodramatic architect?) more

suited to entertainment than serious reportage and the rest of us concentrate

on our own back yard before damming other countries .

On a personal note, I have always felt that Grand Designs is interesting in

spite of his silly commentary not because of it - I felt I must comment on

this more serious subject.

Finally, is Mr Mcloud not familiar with the word faeces?