Council Monopolies, the real shit heap

Birmingham City Council's refuse workers have successfully made the list.  For the second week running my garbage is left to fester in my drive way, leaving the "foxes" (the neighbours fucking dog) to pick over the remains and scatter it across my law!

 According to unite, yes of course these fuckwits are involved, "Refuse workers are in dispute with BCC because it is cutting their pay by as much as £4,000 a year. BCC is now escalating the dispute by threatening to pay the refuse collectors not by their contracted hours but by the amount of waste collected."


I wouldn't usually have a problem with strike action, after all refusing your labour is a perfectly workable, if not somewhat extreme, method of negotiating with your employer, but as we are dealing with the monopolistic public sector I can't help by feel aggrieved!  If I paid a private company to empty my bins I could take my business elsewhere and avoid the unpleasantness of picking litter up off my lawn, and this got me wondering; why does the government force us to pay for the pleasure of them empting our bins, or failing to in this case?

After all my council tax bill (which fortunately I am exempt from paying as a student) came to over £2000 last year, £200 for police, £70 for fire protection and well over £2000 miscellaneous spending!  If two of the most essential services cost on average under £300 per household what the fuck is all this extra money being spent on?  Sure the street lights are on and the roundabout flowers are sometimes watered but this surely isn't costing £2000 a year, and the refuse services certainly aren’t earning their share either!

This money is being tipped down a golden plated sewer, so why all the whinging about spending cuts when I can think of some obvious privatisations/cuts that will not only save money but stop these fuckers holding the taxpayer to ransom.

- Bin Collections
 drive yourself to the tip or pay someone to do it for you, would only cost a pittance
- Parks
sell the land to private owners and charge people who want to use them.  Why should anyone pay for dog soiled land they never set foot on?
- The whole Leisure & Tourism department can be scrapped
companies don't need the council to advertise on their behalf, if something good is going on we can find out ourselves.  Also private swimming pools/gyms can operate just fine
- Boot out the Mayor 
I have not heard or seen him do anything, ever!
- Allotments 
again private owners can operate these no problem
- Libraries & Museums
if they can't sustain themselves then there is obviously not enough public demand for them anyway, a drain on our wallets
- Council Tax Benefits 
even the council says that not enough people claim them, stop recycling the money by not charging people so much in the first place
- Famous People Heritage sites
 who visits those places anyway?
 
Those are just a few, but I think you get the point.  All this without even touching the "essential" services, such as the H for Hygiene award, police, fire, streetlights, social care or the Disabled Children’s Champions.  Fuck me, I bet there may even be a few pounds spare to decorate the roundabouts or buy in some new Christmas lights if that lot went.