Health, Safety and PC Insanity
CLEARLY THERE DO NEED TO BE SOME RULES AND REGULATIONS. But in an increasing "Blame Culture" and a growing army of health and safety "experts", the rules and restrictions are oppressively weighing down on society. Whether it is the EU, our government, some unelected agency, or some pipsqueak local official who has nothing better to do than to think up a potential hazard, increasingly we appear to be no longer responsible for our actions. We may rage but there is nothing we can do.
The Crier is running an open column to which anyone may subscribe. So let us know if there is any H & S rule or PC recommendation which you find stupid, intrusive, unnecessary or just very laughable. All entries to the Editor. We thank Francis Reeks who submits the first one.
"Bristol City Council spent £5,000 planting one hundred yew trees at the Blaise Castle Estate. Several months later they were dug up after a "risk assessment" reckoned they could be a danger to children because the "safety experts" said that children could fall ill with diarrhoea if they ate "several handfuls" of the foliage."