Posted By Mark W
Did anyone else read the full page spread in yesterdays (October 25) Daily Express written by Michael Nicholson?

Yet more tabloid garbage and an apparent witch-hunt on all things Health & Safety. Needless to say the article was full of H&S inaccuracies and misinterpretations including: Slough has cancelled its fireworks display because it is contrary to its smoke-free health & safety policy!

Better still, a charity jumble sale that cannot continue because the organisers cannot afford to pay the public liability insurance-quote just another sad story to keep us healthy & safe! Plus he had to get in a few of the usual misguided interpretations such as no longer being allowed to throw sweets out into crowds at Pantos or street fairs oh must not forget that children must wear goggles when playing conkers.

Does anyone know where I can find the H&S legislation that prevents anyone from trying to talk someone out of committing suicide? Mr Nicholson seems to think it exists.

Did you not know as H&S professionals we are ruining Christmas and helping create a nanny state? Well that’s the stark accusation. Thankfully I do not buy the Express, otherwise I could show my disdain by refusing to purchase it.

Who knows if the media tirade continues to try and sway public opinion, perhaps burning at the stake or ducking in a local pond might be reintroduced, only this time the victims will be H&S professionals! Then at last the media would have fulfilled the H&S witch-hunt!

I look forward to see what, if any, response comes from the HSE or indeed IOSH.

Posted By Kite
In our local cemetery a notice has gone up No glass vases or pottery vases to be used owing to H&S Id like to know how many people have been injured over the last 100 or so years by these vessels

Posted By CFT
Garry

I doubt sincerely that the advice dished out is coming from any direction other than the legal department or the legal advisor's for fear of the usual civil claim flying around, but what else does an undemocratic organisation blame? I can't think of any other reason.

For fear of being sued doesn't quite cut the same mustard as, 'for H&S reasons'!!!!

TGI Friday.

CFT

Posted By J Knight
I often wonder if these 'journalists' would consent to their own privileged working conditions being whittled away as a consequence of watered down H&S laws. Not on your life, if you ask me.

And the ducks thing might well actually be about water conditions and environmental/ wildlife protection; a couple of villages round here have signs asking people not to feed the ducks for the sake of the other wildlife living in the pond,

John

Posted By John Allen
A view of the past through rose tinted spectacles that flies in the face of the facts.

Infant mortality rates were far higher then than today. Yes, we all got measles and chicken pox, but we have forgotten that these diseases killed children in the 1950s and 60s. Vaccination all but eliminated these diseases until of course the recent (unjustified) scare about the MMR jabs. We lived in cold unheated houses with ice on the windows and had colds and flu all the time during the winter. Big cities had smogs lasting for days at a time and chronic bronchitis was rife.

Then there was the accident rate to child pedestrians, - much higher then despite far lower levels of traffic. And as safety professionals we know that the accident rate at work is about a third of what it was 30 years ago, even allowing for the decline in heavy industry.

Speaking from a purely personal viewpoint if there was any selection in merit for school teams it never happened where I was educated. Teachers’ favourites got into the teams regardless of ability. Nowadays kids are coached by professional PE teachers, not maths teachers on their half day, so that even those of average ability can compete successfully. Of course this is condemned as “political correctness”!

So don’t quote sanctimonious rubbish to me about the 50s and 60s – it was when I was brought up and I’d far rather have today’s level of knowledge and concern.

PS the shops were open on Saturdays too, so even that claim is wrong.

Posted By Bob Shillabeer
There you go, it is an everyday event these days, so what is the answer, May I suggest that such misqoutes are exposed by an authoritive body such as IOSH. It is very welcome that the site has an avenue open to rebuff such stupid stances but that is generally read by those already committed so how about a process of public challenge to stupid self interested views? Why not go on the offensive on some of these issues by using the press and making them accknowlege they are bias.

Posted By Merv Newman
Sorry, don't read the Daily Express. Did note the following in yesterday's Sunday Times" (it was a quote from a small add in another paper)

"For sale, one parachute £50. Never opened, small stain"

That edition has not yet gone for the fish and chips or as fire lighters, so I could still quote the coyright sources. If you are interested.

Merv

Posted By Pete Longworth
I was brought up in the 60s in a working class area in the north of England. I remember there being "Jack Frost" on the windows in winter, but then again not many houses had double glazing, neither does your car which is why you will still be chipping ice from the windscreen this winter. We used to play out all day without coming to much harm, but then again the paedophiles and sickos were much less mobile in those days. Nowadays they can travel the length of the country in a few hours. I went to the local grammar school and had to travel across town from the age of 11, but so did every other kid because public transport was the method of choice for most families. It's not a question of things being better or worse it's just different social circumstances.

Posted By Tracey C
Well my posting hit a nerve didn't it?? My intention was to put a smile on somebody's face for a short time anyway.

Quite right John, no need to apologies if you feel differently about the past, so be it as we are all entitled to our own opinion.

I am sure that in about 40 years time our children will either be totally fed up with the world and look back at what they see as good times or think the future is better, who knows.

Me personally, are not good on facts, facts on a legal stance yes, i follow them every day in my working life, but on a personal level are we being treated like mushrooms? I don't watch the news or read the papers I have got 2 Sons fighting for this country in the Army, so sometimes not knowing what is really going on suites me fine.

I might be looking at life through rose coloured glasses but it makes me feel better. A bit of positivity is good for the soul!

Tx

Posted By David J Jones
Here's another one I caught on Wogan driving in this morning (yeah, o.k, I'm a Radio 2 listener!) much in the "bonkers conkers" vein.

Apparently a school in the south (Kent perhaps) have banned the little darlings from wearing football boots to play - wait for it - football!

Pass the valium!

David

Posted By Amanda
Having taken the time to read the post and responses I thought I would add my pennyworth. Reports are now being circulated stating children are no longer able to make judgements regarding their own safety as 'we' wrap them up in cotton wool too much. As a child growing up in the 60's we were able to learn through play our own limitations and to 'push the boundaries' Now children are taken to 'play dates' and 'activities' in parents cars organised by parents. Many managers, councils etc use "elf 'n' safety" not to do things because they are afraid of the fall out, ambulance chasers and others who are looking to blame others for their own failings. As a society we need to take responsibility for our own actions.
Traceys posting did bring a smile to my face as I remember doing some of the things in it and surviving to tell the tale.
Finally as a member of sports teams I know the membership was on merit as there were a few teams I desperately wanted to be on but couldn't make the grade, however I learned that sometimes in life you don't get what you want.

Posted By John Campbell
Who said "first shoot the lawyers"

Posted By J Knight
Me, I'm with John Allen. The past is always better than today because we can look back at it without anxiety; it didn't kill us, QED.

At age 14 I used to catch a bus and spend the whole day running about on the Peak District Moors; at age 17 I would hitch-hike from Sheffield to Manchester and back on my way home from school. But here's a poser. If we wrap our kids up in cotton wool all the time nowadays, why are urban parks full of gangs of feral youths aged from 10 upwards? I'm sure the Daily Express and other 'newspapers' are full of stories about that. So where do they come from if kids aren't ever let out of their parents' sight?

Maybe its just middle-class kids who are wrapped up in cotton-wool, but if so, don't blame H&S, blame what the Chinese would call 'Little Emperor (or Empress)' syndrome.

I do get hacked off at the over-use of H&S as an excuse for some other form of petty bureaucratic restriction, but rule number one has to be; never believe anything written in the 'newspapers', good, bad or indifferent,

John