Cleaning for the Queen

Evidently, the government has declared 2016 the year in which we must 'Clean for the Queen'.  Raising the fine for littering to £150 is also proposed. Great.  Why HMQ should be invoked is beyond me (she's 90 this year, so that seems to be the reason/excuse).  Citizens of the U.K aren't alone in having a casual attitude to littering, and nor is HM Govt alone in trying to impose punishments for doing so.  The problem, it seems to me, is that of attitudes.  Public space, which includes the countryside and roadside verges, appears to be seen as being a free for all space for which no one is responsible.  From this attitude may follow the notion that the individual has a right to litter. It is clear from the verges around Henley that this right is well exercised.

The author, David Sedaris, took to heart cleaning the verges around his neighbourhood, and his rural rambles are or were an exercise in self motivated litter picking.  This is admirably public spirited, and for him may even have been cathartic. Doing a similar exercise around Henley has come to mind -- and, indeed, time time to time there are well publicised (at least in the Henley Standard)  individual and group litter picking activities.  Maybe the loyal citizens of Henley and the Chilterns will take the Clean for the Queen campaign to heart, but all such noble motives will be subverted so long as using public space as an extended public litter bin is viewed as acceptable.