While those of you who know me will already know that I harbour a few cynical suspicions about global warming, I'm as passionate as anyone else about treating the planet with respect. I just don't like the way some parties have hijacked this for what I suspect are their own nefarious purposes, nor do I appreciate the 'holier than thou' brigade who should really look a bit more closely at what they're doing before taking it upon themselves to tell me what to do.
In this latter group is one of our local supermarkets, which has taken it upon themselves to ration the supply of plastic carrier bags. Now don't get me wrong - I have no problem with paying for a bag if I need one. I have to do this whenever I shop in Lidl's, after all. But there's a subtle difference - Lidl's is cheaper. Other supermarkets build the cost of free bags into their prices first and then tell us we can't have them.
Bearing in mind that if I go shopping with my own carrier bags, that same supermarket's security guard follows me round like glue, I get pretty annoyed sometimes. Especially when you get to the checkout and you've got some dingbat trying to ram everything into a single bag. Fragile products like bread are promptly flattened, and I'm getting sick of complaining only to be told 'We've all got to do our bit for global warming.'
So I thought I'd look a bit closer to home. And what do I find? Basil from Israel, Mushrooms from Poland (like we can't grow mushrooms in the UK? 
); a dessert that combines English cream with Polish raspberries? And best of all, the olives with feta cheese which originated from Greece, Spain, Denmark ... and was then all shipped off to Holland to be packaged!!!
The supermarket is quite right. We must all do our bit. I think it's high time they made some effort.....
