Ostentatious caring allows a lonely nation to forge new social bonds. Additionally, it serves as a form of catharsis.”We saw this at its most ghoulish after the demise of Diana. British people indulge in “recreational grief”, epitomised by the mourning at the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, to feel better about themselves, says a controversial report published today. We have 3,000 litter bins in Westminster, but people choose to drop their gum on the pavement instead of putting it in the wrapper.” A Westminster City Council spokesman”He can make chewing gum that never loses its taste, and sugar balloons that you can blow up to enormous sizes before you pop them with a pin and gobble them up.” Grandpa Joe in ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’”TV – chewing gum for the eyes.” Frank Lloyd Wright, architect”Oh my little one, take that chewing gum out of your ears.” from Elvis Costello’s song ‘Chewing Gum’”She can’t even chew chewing gum and walk in a straight line at the same time, let alone write a book.” Liam Gallagher on Victoria Beckham’s autobiographyI always chew gum, it keeps me calm.” Burt Reynolds. Three buddies sitting around, chewing gum.” Kramer, in the sitcom ‘Seinfeld’”So dumb he can’t fart and chew gum at the same time.” Lyndon Johnson, the former US President, of Gerald Ford”It’s OK if you can do it without attracting attention to yourself.” Etiquette expert Lesley Carlin, co-author of ‘Things You Need to Be Told: A Handbook for Polite Behaviour in a Tacky, Rude World!’ on chewing gum”I saw it everywhere and thought it was gross and tacky.” ‘New York Post’ editor Maureen Callahan, disgusted at the number of stars that chew gum”It’s a serious filth that threatens the environment. It seems we’re stuck with Thomas Adams’s bright idea.Words to chew on”If you can’t think because you can’t chew, try a banana.” Singapore’s first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew.”Now see, this is what the holidays are all about.

Gum that breaks down doesn’t seem smart; and gum that doesn’t stick isn’t high on the manufacturers’ list of desirables. He was inspired by riding on London Tube escalators, where, for years, travellers have delighted in embellishing the adverts beside them with their unwanted gum – often on the noses of faces there. In 2002 Bournemouth Borough Council began an experiment with a company called Meteora, founded by Mr Kenyon, who thought the Tube example might work in streets. So he set up “GumTargets” – boards with specially sticky surfaces – with faces such as George Bush, Jeffrey Archer, Jeremy Beadle, Tony Blair and Iain Duncan-Smith. Passers-by were encouraged to stick their gum on the boards, not the street.

Bournemouth thinks it has been a success, though it is not offering firm numbers on savings. In truth, it’s hard to see why people who won’t stoop to a bin would seek out a board with a face, when the pavement is always convenient. Perhaps the only answer would be fines.The other two options are for the scientists in the gum factories: biodegradable gum, and less sticky stuff Neither seems likely in the short term. Its import, manufacture and sale were banned in 1992, and the penalty for smuggling it is a year in jail and a SG$10,000 fine (about £3,000) (You are however allowed to possess it, and consume it. Just not to make a mess with it.)After pressure – from the US, naturally, whose gum makers want to expand their markets – it has agreed to lift those bans.

You will be able to get chewing gum “with a therapeutic value” as long as you have a medical prescription. But the ban wasn’t just a government version of a parent telling a child to “stop chewing that stuff”; they also wanted to get the trains to run on time. Wads of discarded gum stuck to subway doors had prevented them closing, disrupting the service. It was also a nuisance on cinema seats and in public areas like housing estates.The British government is ready to follow suit, Today the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will explain that gum is one of the main elements in public litter: 94 per cent of 100,000 sites in more than 50 local authority areas had discarded gum trodden into the pavement.The borough of Westminster has an average of 20 pieces for every square metre of pavement; and local authorities spend more than £150m annually on the problem (either using steam guns to blast it off, or freeze treatments that make the gum fragile; both can damage the pavement).One option being considered by Alun Michael, the Rural Affairs minister, comes from Ian Kenyon.