Can England cope with the bag charge or will there be a bagpocalypse? | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Shoppers must now pay 5p for plastic carrier bags in England. There is more to gain from this inconvenience than just using up your collection under the sink

Wales managed, Scotland managed, but it remains to be seen whether or not the English are able to cope with having to pay 5p for plastic bags when out shopping, as charges are introduced today.

Plastic Bag Chaos Looms predicts the Daily Mail - which has, ironically, been lobbying for charges since 2008 - as some of the exemptions to the rules are deemed "too confusing" for shoppers. (If by confusing you mean relatively straightforward with a few notable exemptions.) Companies with under 250 employees need not charge and some items, such as uncooked chicken, flowers, live goldfish, axeheads and prescription medication (all of which could combine to make quite the Saturday night) are exempt from the charging, except whenever these goods are purchased with non-exempt items. Granted, the regulations require a smidge more mental exertion that their Welsh and Scottish counterparts, but surely this nation of shopkeepers can manage to forebear these stressful changes with the same meek acceptance they deploy for all other regulations imposed from above?