This weekend : House sorting, decoration making, workshop planning for Manchester Bifest. Pub tonight. Perhaps out somewhere tomorrow night - any suggestions?

I also appear to be a bit more tired than I should be, and my joints are in slightly less than perfect shape. May have to look at my diet as I've been reducing my meat consumption, and perhaps I'm lacking nutrients in some area.

I've also received the joyful "Horwich and Blackrod Focus" (local lib dem newsletter). This features the admission they lost by 130 votes because of the bins (basically, the bins have changed from weekly collection to fortnightly with green bin and bottle box on the other week. It notes that the Tories voted against a cardboard recycling scheme despite their professed green credentials (surely not! and as a side note - isn't their new logo incredibly bad?)).

However it then goes on to have sour grapes, saying that going back to weekly grey bin collection and increasing recycling is 'a con'. Well, let's just see, shall we? The assertion that it will lead to 'a massive reduction in recycling' is not yet proven, and the pledge that 'increasing the capacity to recycle so that you did not have to make trips to the tip and recyling centre ... and on the surface appeared like a reduction in service'.

It *was* a reduction in service. You can't spin a fortnightly grey bin collection any other way. The fact other services were provided on alternate weeks is not relevant to the main service reduction. Have the grace to accept democracy and fix the sodding problem!