WE COMPLAIN bitterly about dirty beaches. But we are the most to blame for the mess.

For a survey today shows that tourists are the biggest cause of the litter left behind on the shore.

Not just that, we are creating more mess than ever.

And visitors to the North West's beaches are the worst culprits.

It is, of course, much more a shameful indictment of our standards and values than of the services of the councils who have to clean up the rubbish.

We have become a nation of litter louts.

But how do we stop this dirty disgrace and its unhealthy, eyesore consequences from becoming so ingrained that Britain becomes a byword for filth?

Is it not time, as this newspaper has wearily wondered for years, that our litter laws were put to use?

And is it not a fact that the country is so filthy is because every litter lout knows they can get away with it?

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