Yes, it’s The End Of The Wolrd As We Know It. And it’s not 21st December yet!

Civilisation is crumbling. This notice on the door of the public WC in Boussac confirms it.

It says: Because of so much nicking, we’re not supplying toilet roll any more.

Now that’s sad. It’s sad that people pinch toilet rolls when they’re so cheap to buy, not to mention tough on the next person who calls in to use the loo and may not have a handy spare tissue, and it’s also sad that the conseil has decided to stop supplying the stuff altogether. There are ways around the problem. A lockable toilet roll dispenser, for example, which you find in loads of public smallest rooms. I’ve found some online for around €40. One of those would pay for itself in a year or so I’d have thought in preventing unauthorised losses. The commune clearly has enough money if it can put up a fancy electronic noticeboard, which it recently did and which is ridiculously OTT in our sleepy little town. It’s also ridiculously close to a pedestrian crossing, and very distracting, and I’m actually astonished that no one has been flattened yet. It’s easy to have your eye drawn by the flashing display to see which saint’s day it is today or what the temperature is, and should that happen just as someone is stepping out on the crossing – disaster. Boussac found money for a couple of dozen new Christmas moustaches for the town too! So, there’s no way the Maire can’t afford to invest €40 in caring for the welfare of the town’s posteriors.

A well-kept public WC is a credit to a town, and, in my opinion, a necessity. It’s only a tiny minority of citizens who go around pilfering PQ. (PQ is slang for toilet roll, pécu, short for papier cul i.e. bottom paper!) Why should the rest of us now be inconvenienced? (Pun intended!)