As I travel around the inner Hebrides, I have been almost overwhelmed by the quantities of sea-bourne rubbish swept up on every beach and inlet. Some of it is colourful and almost funny, as in the picture above. But much of it is not and it is a sad commentary on the state of the oceans. Nearky all of it is plastic, including all the rope, so it will never rot or decompose.

If someone wants a job creation scheme, how about teams of people deployed to pick this all up!