The Big Smoke

George Galloway has taken up permanent residence on my front doormat, like the cat he is so fond of impersonating. He comes in the shape of an A5 Respect Party-promoting flyer that lives next to a pile of other doorstep spam that touts doner kebab shacks and various other low-end drink-and-dial food outlets. It's an almost brotherly juxtaposition but no doubt they arrive by different unseen hands. The capital’s legions of doorstep marketeers collectively force-feed London’s letterboxes with over 35 million pieces of unsolicited mail each year.

Hackney Council's newly signposted 'Say No To Junk Mail' campaign aims to tackle this waste, which they say equates to 900 tonnes and takes 6,000 trees to create. A laudable initiative, but they've turned the green gun on themselves. It seems a slightly counter-productive approach to ask residents to call a freephone number to receive a special 'pack', which then arrives through their letterbox with a number of glossy leaflets with advice on how to stop glossy leaflets arriving through their letterbox – all in the name of saving the environment. Surely green-washed schemes shouldn't add weight to the problems they try to solve?