A few words from Rob Mansfield

We all tell lies. That’s an absolute - no matter how saintly you think you are, you don’t tell the truth all the time.

We might tell someone, ‘I’m fine,’ when actually we’re feeling a bit shit. We may not be entirely truthful when our partner asks how something looks when they’re trying it on in a shop.

The things is, though, most of us actually want to tell the truth more than we do, but our own ethics get in the way of things.

Often, we don’t want to alienate a work colleague, upset a friend or cause a family argument, so we bite our tongue or phrase things in such a way that we don’t cause offence.

Clearly, I’m not as blunt as Larry ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ David, but as I get older, I’ve become less and less ‘face-saving’ and am happy to say what I think more and more often. I’ve given up, most of the time, trying to steer clear of arguments and am happy to tell people what I think.

However, there are still some things I don’t pipe up about and, for the life of me, I don’t know why.

Maybe it’s because I can’t be bothered to fight with the person once I’ve told the truth, maybe I’m genuinely concerned about the consequences of my not lying.

Whatever, I guess I’ll never be able to be totally truthful with people…

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The Daily Mail is giving away free Michael Caine DVDs this week. Oooh, good-o, you might think. Now I can get hold of The Italian Job or Zulu without having to buy it. Sadly, you’d be mistaken.

A quick shufti at Michael Caine’s IMDB entry shows that he’s credited with more than 130 film roles - an astonishingly large body of work.

Sadly, however, a repertoire this big means that there are more than a few clunkers in there. For every Hannah And Her Sisters there are at least 10 ropey roles.

And to prove it, let me rattle off some of the DVDs that the Daily Mail is so generously giving away to readers this week: The Whistle Blower, Half Moon Street, Shiner, Without A Clue, A Shock To The System, The Statement, Shadow Run, Bullet To Beijing… the list goes on and, let me tell you, even the most hardened film buffs would be hard pushed to claim to have seen more than a couple of them.

Fortunately, Caine will always be remembered fondly for the roles that were successful, but I still wonder why he’s made so many crap films in between.

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Interesting article in today’s Guardian G2 section about the problems we have as a country with waste and how to dispose of it.

The government’s pledge to increase recycling and lower waste has meant a confusing raft of implementations that many people can’t keep track of.

There are countless reports of people being fined for what seems like a minor transgression and increasing frustration as different councils do different things.

I’m all for being green. No-one can be perfect, but I try as hard as I can to recycle, drive minimal distances, use public transport, I haven’t been on a plane in more than 2 years, the list goes on…

The one area I find myself with problems, though, is with packaging. Where I live farmers’ markets are a rarity and we don’t have the luxury of lovely butchers and grocers nearby, so as with much of the population, we have to make do with Tesco or Sainsbury’s.

And it’s the supermarkets I have the issue with. Their crusade to reduce plastic bags seems to be a bit of a smokescreen. If they really wanted to do their bit for the environment, they’d do something about plastic packaging.

There are almost 50 types of plastic and it may surprise many people to know that all of them are recyclable. Yup, all of it!

Sadly, only 7% of plastic is being recycled at present, mainly because the majority of councils don’t have the ability.

Now, somewhere along the line there’s a problem. Part of it seems to me to be down to local councils, but surely it makes more sense to try and do without most of the plastic packaging.

Supermarkets have to try and do loose produce more. Yes, it may be more convenient to pick up a punnet of pre-packed mushrooms, but it’s not eco-friendly and not cost-effective.

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