CLIVE SMITH: Moaners just don't bother to read articles properly

It’s guaranteed every time and it gets annoying.

If it were a TV show, you could make it into a drinking game. Every time someone mentions ‘the homeless’, take a drink. For ‘students’ it would be two swigs and the word ‘council’ would mean everyone had to finish their drinks.

People seem to be confusing the university and the council. It is a prerogative of the council to try to help out the homeless, while the university has a duty to help house its students.

Private landlords own these places and they can do what they want with them. The university has no business in building houses for the homeless. Why should it?

And then there is Excell Metal Spinning, a company based in Hilsea, that has one of the biggest chimneys in Portsmouth.

After being inspired by the eco towers of Singapore, as featured on David Attenborough’s TV series Planet Earth 2, they hope to turn the chimney into something similar with plants growing up it.

I think this would be a great idea – the ones in Singapore look brilliant.

Done properly, it could look really good, much better than looking at a dreary tower. Plus it would benefit local wildlife too. Fair play to the company for trying to make the city a nicer place to look at.

Director Lee Bligh said: ‘Hopefully this will put a smile on everyone’s faces and get people thinking about how the city looks.’

Yeah, fat chance of that with all the moaners not even bothering to read an article in The News and at portsmouth.co.uk properly.

People have assumed it’s the council planning an eco tower and have gone on message boards having a go. They haven’t read the piece properly and have just jumped to conclusions.

It’s the same with private landlords selling property to the uni. People just assume it’s the council without actually reading the facts. Depressing.

PEOPLE SIMPLY DON’T HAVE THE DISPOSABLE INCOME ANY MORE

There’s still a steady stream of pubs closing around the city.

It’s like survival of the fittest.

I understand most people will be a little sad to see their local go.

But the problem is that I doubt many of them actually go in there and spend money that often.

Yet when you’re getting hardly any change from a fiver for a pint and a packet of salt ’n’ vinegar, is it really surprising?

People just haven’t got the disposable income to afford regular trips to the pub these days.

The funny thing is, though, when you do go to the pub you’ll spend all kinds on shots and lager, yet the next day you’ll be in the One Stop scanning the aisles trying to save 2p on a loaf of bread.

DON’T GO DOWN THE BUS LANE AND THEN YOU WON’T GET FINED

The city council has reportedly made £123,000 from fining people who use the bus lane outside Queen Alexandra Hospital and people caught are outraged.

But is that because the council has made money, or because they got fined doing something they weren’t meant to be doing anyway?

It’s not as if there are no signs warning people it’s a bus lane.

If you can’t see them, maybe you shouldn’t be driving.

And another thing – the cameras wouldn’t be necessary if people didn’t go in the bus lane.

I know these things might be annoying.

But don’t go down the bus lane and then you won’t get fined.

Pretty simple really.