Litter problem is out of control, says Paxman

Jeremy Paxman has attacked the "uglification" of Britain's streets and warned that the country's litter problem is spiralling out of control.

The Newsnight presenter, who criticised the BBC in January for having a "hypocritical stance" on the issue of climate change, furthered his green credentials today with a call for a "national spring clean".

In an article for the Guardian, Mr Paxman, 56, saves his most damning indictment for Chancellor Gordon Brown, criticising him for "posing as an environmentalist". He writes: "Here is a man whose memorial should be built of discarded supermarketbags." Mr Paxman speaks of his dismay at the litter he saw on a country road, saying he counted more than 100 items including sandwich wrappers, crisp packets and plastic bottles.

He says: "We are no longer a green and pleasant land spotted with filthy places. We are a filthy island in which there is an occasional oasis of cleanliness.

"People, like animals, do not generally foul their own nests. But they feel free to throw rubbish around for much the same reason morons feel entitled to vandalise bus shelters, smash park benches or use telephone boxes as urinals: they do not feel the public realm is theirs."

Mr Paxman attacks Blairism for "doing nothing to dim the obsession with signifiers of success" and argues the Government has not spent enough on litter removal.

"Since no government - national or local - wants to take away the money citizens would prefer to spend on shiny new goods, they economise on clearingup rubbish." Mr Paxman criticises the Treasury for failing to support a scheme, successfully implemented in Ireland, which would have seen a tax imposed on the use of nonrecyclable plastic bags.

He goes on to suggest that persistent litter bugs should be made to pick up rubbish as a more effective punishment than paying a fine. Mr Paxman has accused his employer, the BBC, of hypocrisy over climate change, saying it took a "high moral tone" in its reporting of the issue while pursuing environmentally irresponsible policies in running the corporation.