Helen Bach Column: Make Britain vaguely civilised?!

Vaguely civilised? There's a shocking lack of ambition couched in that remark isn't there - how about making Britain civilised again full stop?!

Intrigued though, I read on. This has come from Neil O'Brien, MP for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston, so just over the border from us.

His suggested crackdown on spitting I'm 100% on board with - it's a disgusting and potentially hazardous habit; have folk learnt nothing from the Covid pandemic?

Action to stop e-scooters and e-bikes from being ridden and dumped on pavements - yes, again, totally agree. I hate the bloomin' things, they're dangerous in the wrong hands, and I've lost count of the number of times they've shot across a pedestrian crossing nearly causing an accident, or nearly mowed me down on the pavement.

A 'galvanising' national goal to reduce the amount of litter - again, common sense, there's no need for any litter is there? It's bad for the environment as well as being unsightly - did we learn nothing from The Wombles all those years ago?

He also wants to tackle fly tipping and dumped fridges, mattresses and broken cars - yep, absolutely, a plague on society and utterly detestable.

His large fines for playing music on public transport - well, I can't really comment on that. Where I live isn't particularly well-served by regular buses etc, but I don't imagine the Welland Wanderer (East or West) has a particular problem with ghetto blasters? Please let me know if I'm wrong though!

Where our opinions start to differ is that Mr O'Brien isn't a fan of Banksy and says his art is guilty of 'valorising' graffiti; we'll have to agree to disagree on that point, as I personally like Banksy's work. But I do have to acknowledge that not all graffiti is art.

Have the courage of your convictions though Mr O'Brien! 'Make Britain vaguely civilised again' isn't going to be a good slogan for your baseball cap; I wouldn't advise putting 'Make Britain great again' though...