Read more: Challenge us to improve our lives

Thrown down on Archer Lane during the few hours between litter picks: one 'My Happy Meal' carton with picture of grinning clown; two milk shake cups with plastic straws and tops; a Jobseekers' booklet; three, four lager can packs; a plastic wrap (possibly used for illegal substances); a used condom. You get the picture. We are trash. Our culture is trash. But, it can be changed.

The Government has recently welcomed a report which recommended rebates on council tax for anyone who voluntarily undertakes some form of work which contributes to the good of their own area. That would be a welcome move towards encouraging us all to think and care a bit more, as would incentives to employers to allow time out to do this work.

It's about re-working what holds communities together, weeds out those who don't care about themselves, their children or their surroundings.
It doesn't help that so much is put into - and wasted - measures which, effectively, tell us that we can't be responsible for ourselves; that we must place our safety and environment in the hands of 'expert professionals.' In some ways, this has made us all easier to control whilst a minority do whatever they please.

Leaving us with CCTV monitored lives filled with consumption of computerised virtual realities, crap housing choices, lousy public transport and 'fear of the young.'

It hasn't helped that the public shoolboys' ideology of Britain's role in the world is some 100 years out-of-date now and that resources we need at home are diverted into war.

Another policy which is increasingly adopted in other modern states is to give each person a basic citizen's income. This ensures that each person can be housed and fed, as long as they are responsible for themselves.

It saves resources which go into administering a job seekers' system, which also, of course, demeans anyone subject to it.
None of the representatives of the political parties who have canvassed us recently have alluded to any of these things. Do any of them want changes for the better and, if so, would they even know how?