Ok, I'm reopening this because I've worked out what it is. The trash displays its status correctly until I delete something by pressing the delete key on my keyboard, at which point the trash will always appear empty until actually emtied at which point correct behaviour resumes.
** Changed in: gnome-applets (Ubuntu) Status: Rejected => Confirmed -- Trash looks empty, isn't https://launchpad.net/bugs/72468 -- desktop-bugs mailing list desktop-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/desktop-bugs