Last Monday, I went to help with an event organised with a school and residents association in my ward. They were litter picking over lunchtime, with lots of children and residents on hand to help out.

A local resident has lots of information and pictures here.

Armed with a black bag and litter picker, I spent about an hour and a half wandering up familiar streets picking up small pieces of litter, and, in no particular order, here are the thoughts that occurred to me:

1. I probably wouldn’t have been so happy to help if the weather hadn’t been quite so good.
2. A litter picker is no substitute for a broom.
3. Lots of the litter is stuff that didn’t exist a few decades ago: tin cans, plastic sweet wrappers.
4. A sizeable proportion of the litter is to do with smoking or drinking: fag packets, cellophane, cigarette butts, broken bottles, lager tins.
5. There’s an awful lot of litter, even on streets that look relatively clean.
6. There’s an amazing amount of stuff stuck in hedges that has probably been there years.
7. There’s no way councils can remove all of this litter on their own.  There has to be a three part approach – council tidying, dropping less litter in the first place, and communities taking charge of their own streets.

I see I have been tagged by Liberal England in this meme:

First Job
I worked alternate Saturdays in Ludlow Library, helping with shelving books. I wasn’t supposed to use the computers, but they couldn’t keep me away. And I ended up bagsying so many good returns I ended up learning my library card number by heart: R2206005395.

First Real Job
Working in an adult ed centre teaching people to use MS Office and computers.

First Role in Politics
Volunteer, office of Nick Clegg MEP, 2001.

First Car
An ill-fated white Rover bought for a few hundred pounds. The clutch died a few dies later, and finally the crank shaft dropped out of it during the Leicester South by-election, and it was uneconomical to repair.

First Record
When Freddie Mercury died, and Bohemian Rhapsody was getting a lot of airplay, me, my mum and my little brother went to buy the CD of it from Woolworths in Leominster. It was the first pop CD that got played in my Dad’s hifi.

First Football Match
I don’t think I’ve ever been to a football match.

First Concert
I suspect I was in concerts before I went to them. Or maybe it was the Simon and Garfunkel tribute act in Ludlow in about 1995?

First Country Visited
We were frequent visitors to Wales throughout my childhood – but first went proper abroad to France in 1989.

First TV Appearance
I don’t think I’ve been on TV. I was vox-popped for Newsnight at party conference, but I suspect I was too loyalist for broadcast. “Are you happy with the Lib Dems being a redistributionist party?” “Absolutely.”

First Political Speech
First major one would probably have been proposing an amendment to abolish Council Tax at Nottingham City Council. The Labour party weren’t impressed.

First Girlfriend/Boyfriend
Miguel, I suppose. I once travelled all the way to Warwick Uni for a date, only to be stood up by him. I later discovered he’d been whisked away to hospital for an emergency appendectomy.

First Encounter with a Famous Person
Little and Large in panto?

First Brush With Death
Playing hide and seek in Ludlow Castle, rushing around a corner to hide to discover there wasn’t a floor. I nearly plumeted to my death!

First House/Flat Owned
This one right here up a hill in Sherwood, Nottingham.

First Film Seen at a Cinema
First one I can remember is Jungle Book, but my mother has a story of me in Bambi loudly asking “Mummy, why are you crying?”

First Time on the Radio
I read out some doggerel on BBC Radio Hereford and Worcester, on the subject of salmonella.

First Politician I Met
Can it actually have been Nick Clegg?

First Book I Remember Reading
It would have to have been one of the Famous Five books.

First Visit to the London Palladium
Like Jonathan Calder, that is a pleasure I still have in store.

I don’t really tag people – if you want to take part, feel free.