CLIVE SMITH: More people in Portsmouth simply means even more problems

This is all well and good but where the hell are these people going to go?

There are already too many people living here. Aren’t we the most densely populated city in the UK? I know let’s squash more people in.

Our services and infrastructure are already bursting at the seams and struggling to get by so having more people using them is hardly a solution.

There’s little point trying to get a doctor’s appointment, because you have to wait three weeks and by the time the appointment comes around either your illness has gone or you’re dead.

It’s the same if you need to visit A&E. Unless you go in with a severed head like an extra from The Walking Dead there’s little point going.

And then you’ve got cars. God I hate trying to get around this city. Rush hour is a real test of the blood pressure and if you’re unfortunate enough to be out when there’s been an accident on one of the main roads into or out of town, you may as well forget it and bed down for the night on the back seat.

And trying to get parked anywhere near your house is just ridiculous. There’s nothing like coming home after a hard day’s graft and putting on your hiking boots for a ramble back to your home.

It’s difficult to really see many positives if you ask me. Yes, more money will be spent in the city by these people. Cafés, shops, pubs will be better off and the drug dealers will be quids-in as fewer houses for people to live in will increase rents and house prices – which people can’t afford and then you’ll see an increase in homeless people who will need to get out of their minds on smack just to get through the day.

And building more houses isn’t the solution. Plenty are being built on the outskirts of town but these new-builds are hardly affordable for most people and then you’re only creating the same problems elsewhere.

Thinking that increasing the population of Portsmouth is a good thing seems a bit backwards to me.

THE CURSE OF READING ‘DEATH LIST 2018’

The missus was watching some rubbish on TV, the kids were looking into their phones so I found myself on Google and, like you do, ended up looking at Death List 2018. It’s a list of celebrities who are most likely to die this year.

Yes, it’s macabre but it provided decent conversation for a bit – the kids even stopped taking duck-pout selfies for five minutes.

The day after reading the list Ken Dodd died, then Givenchy, Stephen Hawking, and Jim Bowen the day after that. So, that’s four at the time of writing.

My six-year-old had obviously heard us talking about this and shouted upstairs: ‘It said on the news Stephen Hawking died from a curse.’

If any more die I’m getting myself exorcised!

LET’S SCRAP THE 5P TOO WHILE WE’RE AT IT

The government is mulling over the idea of scrapping the 1p and 2p coins. I like this idea.

They’re heavy, smelly and never really get used and are destined to end up in a massive bottle of Famous Grouse or in some compartment of the car never to be spent because car parks don’t take them and petrol is usually for with a card anyway.

They should also do away with the 5p piece while they’re at it, another pointless coin.

Charities will miss out though, as will the arcades. It’s great going into one and getting five quid’s worth of 2ps to put through the coin pushers attempting to win a Minions key-ring.