According to Radio Four this morning there are £450 million worth of unused foot-spa’s and £431 million of unused bread makers languishing unused in British homes. These items, unwanted gifts, show us much that is wrong with the way we do things.

£881 million of technology, human effort, scarce resources, all wasted. Of course, this is just bread makers and foot-spa’s. Think of all the other unwanted gifts and you start to get to very scary numbers. The resource waste is the most appalling aspect. The manufacture of many of these gifts uses energy, water, plastics - oil and precious metals. These are all scarce resources which could, without exception, be used to great benefit elsewhere.

Gift-giving is about the ego of the giver. Presents are bought to support the self-image of the buyer. This is why they are so often wrong for the receiver. Will your gifts end up on the ever expanding “Crap Gift Mountain”?

I take back my earlier post about gift-goats. At least goat shit can be used to cook a meal, unlike the £431 million of bread makers.