Clamp Down On Nanny State

Not before time!! All those really patheitc laws to go at last.

BARMY health and safety decisions could be given the chop, under plans being considered by the Government.

There was a steady rise of "nonsense" rulings made by town councils under the Labour government, according to Tory peer Lord Young.

They created a culture of fear, which led to events such as the 200-year-old tradition of down-hill cheese-rolling in Brockworth, Glous, being cancelled for safety reasons.

Other barmy health and safety measures introduced in the last decade include children being banned from playing conkers at school and a restaurant not giving out toothpicks for fear of injuring customers.

Lord Young has conducted a review into our health and safety culture, which is due to be published later this month.

Among the measures he wants considered are town halls being sued for wrongly banning events.

Emergency workers and teachers are also set to be freed from rules which say someone must be held to account for everyday mishaps and accidents.

The review also says there should be a crackdown on advertising which encourages people to make personal injury claims on a no-win, no-fee basis.

Red tape that can prevent children from going on school outings should also be scrapped.

Lord Young was shocked by some of the examples of health and safety madness he had uncovered while conducting the review.

He said: "It makes you wonder what sort of world we have come to.

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"It has gone to such extremes. What I have seen everywhere is a complete lack of common sense.

"People have been living in an alternative universe."

"Whatever the loss is. I want officials to think twice and make sure they have the authority.

"This sort of nonsense has come from the last government trying to create a nanny state and trying to keep everybody in cotton wool.

"Frankly if I want to do something stupid and break my leg or neck, that's up to me. I don't need a council to tell me not to be an idiot.

"I can be an idiot all by myself.

"'Schools are not allowing pupils to go on days out because they are scared they will be liable if an accident happens.

"That's nonsense, and that's not going to continue, unless a teacher is really negligent. In the ordinary course of events, accidents happen."

very true , its getting ridiculous.
my great nephew is not allowed to take his scooter to school ,incase theres an accident and the school will be liable, for goodness sake. the world has gone mad.
it does boil down to common sense in a lot of these cases.

Hi Saffy, it seems Nu Labour never had any common sense, the ridiculous laws the brought in were absolutely invented by brain-dead morons. I hope the Tories get rid of all the crap and mess that labour left behind.

yeah...one of their priorities is to reinstate our "down hill cheese rolling tradition".as lord young said "if people want to break their legs,it's up to them"...lol.well said that man.

One council (can't remember which one} sent in a cherry picker to rid a conker tree of all it's conkers, a young girl was hitting the conkers with stick and one fell on her head.........well, wft did she expect!!! Morons are now making kids dress up like freking Robo cop if they happen to walk under a conker tree. The world had gone mad I tell Ya, next it will be apples and pears!!!

Is the nanny state really the fault of the state though?

What I'm getting at is that we seem to be going the way of America in the sense that we are fast becoming a compensation orientated society. People are suing for every possible thing imaginable.

Maybe these over drastic measures are simply there to try and prevent the number of claims public bodies are now receiving from Joe Public?

I'm with El on this one.

Did you know that a primary school was successfully sued in England because a child fell over & grazed their knee in the playground?
Did you know you could successfully sue someone if they put a plaster on a cut & you had an allergic reaction to that plaster?
Did you know that if you were to save someone from drowning but injured them in the process they could sue you for it successfully?
If you slip in a shop because you walked onto a slippery surface & was paying no attention to where you were going you could sue the shop.
If someone broke into your house they could sue YOU if they sustain an injury in your house......
The list is endless.....

We are in a Claim culture these days. The cheese rolling is fun, but if the local council allows that to go ahead & someone gets injured then the local council can be and more than likely would be sued successfully. Yes, this whole health & Safety thing seems a bit crazy, but what can you do when we are in such an age as this where "If there's blame, there's a claim"? We've all got to cover our own backs at some point otherwise the claim culture will thrive.....