[West Ender]

When I had a very old dog I never took her out on walks without pooper-scooper bags as, from being the cleanest dog in the world, she became rather incontinent in old age - she lived to be 16. It wasn't a big problem to clean up after her and it always enraged me, and still does, to find dog-mess around on the ground. The worst problem, though, is chewing-gum. The stuff is everywhere, squashed into grey splats all over the pavements, filthy and unhygienic.

Next to that is the discarded fast-food wrapper. Why do the English assume that someone else will always clean up their mess? My eldest daughter, much braver than I, once picked up a paper half full of chips, thrown from a car on to the pavement, and shoved it back on to the lap of the woman who'd thrown it saying, "I think this is yours". The woman was so shocked she didn't say a word - but she didn't throw it out again while we were watching.

I hate litter-louts with a vengeance. I just wish I had my daughter's guts to make a stand.