THE strange thing about cigarette butts is that despite their size, they're easy to spot, even when you're travelling at almost 50 miles per hour.

So I watched with interest as the lit fag-end thrown out of the passenger side of the car in front of me bounced on to the tarmac and into the middle of some tinder-dry shrub at the side of the dual carriageway.

The fact that our busy newsroom was not alerted to a major blaze on the A338 minutes later presupposes that the cigarette did not do any lasting damage and the young man - now there's a surprise - was not responsible for setting in motion a potentially dangerous incident.

Echo readers will recall that just a few weeks ago, we exclusively revealed the story of a young lady whose car was set ablaze when a cigarette end was thrown into the back seat of her car through an open window.

Moments after realising that the back seat of her car was on fire, she got out of the vehicle before it became an inferno.

Subsequently, our story appeared in many national newspapers and was incorporated into some of the publicity surrounding the launch of last week's Keep Britain Tidy campaign to hit back at litter louts on the roads.

It's a very commendable idea and I wish the organisation every success in persuading errant British drivers to think twice before they toss cigarettes, paper, plastic bottles out of their windows.

Sadly, they'll be on a loser because we're fundamentally a lazy nation.

We're not messy as such, just bone idle, and in the same way that people won't take their rubbish off a beach at the end of the day, they can't be bothered to gather up the detritus they've accumulated during their journey and pop it into bins along the road, at motorway service stations or garages.

We're a nation which can't see rubbish bins, let alone dispose of our litter in them.

Let me take you to Viewpoint at the top of Constitution Hill in Parkstone, overlooking Poole harbour and one of the most glorious views in the county.

Take a walk with the dog as the sun rises - as I often do - and you will be amazed at the view. You will also be disgusted by the amount of rubbish strewn around.

There are plenty of bins, but some are full and overflowing and some are empty simply because some lazy beggar can't be bothered to walk the 20 yards to the empty one.

Let me take you to the A338 spur road on a windy day and you'll wonder how wildlife manages to survive under that much trash.

too am guilty of throwing stuff out of my car window, but I have to admit that I would argue that an apple core has some chance of providing food for that wildlife or, better still, growing into another apple tree.

Whether Keep Britain Tidy persuades lazy Britons to think likewise is highly unlikely.