The scaffolding example is a great one for showing a lack of common sense where Elf n Safety is involved. I had a situation where one joint on the guttering was leaking. In order to conform with H&S it would have been necessary to either put up a scaffolding tower or hire a cherry picker. My brother-in-law is a builder and was happy to climb a ladder, with me steadying the bottom and the ladder standing on concrete, and pushed the joint back together. He was up the ladder literally for two minutes and the job was done. As it was done in a private capacity H&S didn't come into it. If I'd had to employ a builder the costs would have run potentially into hundreds of pounds.
I'm not saying that H&S isn't important, just that it has gone much too far in some areas.
I see that the accused Gatwick couple have been released without charge yet their photos have been plastered all over the Sunday papers.
It's far more important to news organisations these days that they get the story out first than it is to worry about minor details such as the facts. The BBC and the Cliff Richard story is another good/bad example of that.
I won't dispute that there was some awful 'comedy' in the 60 and 70s but what many in the PC brigade ignore is that it was always the bigotted white character who came out worst in programmes such as Love Thy Neighbour and Till Death Us Do Part.
I very much doubt that Dad's Army or 'Allo, 'Allo would get past the PC censors these days despite both being generally accepted as classics.
I agree with you on both counts, KT. In your case, there was a straightforward way to sort the problem. This person I was talking about could have ended up with an even bigger one because there's no way the guys could have reached the middle of the roof from a ladder. I'm sure she'd have been quick enough to moan even more if one of them had gone through the roof
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Picidae. Of course the world moves on but society has to live by rules or else break down. people screaming Freedom of speech have prevented a proper rule book being drawn up for all the on line media where people can hide behind those so called freedoms to cause misery for others. The uproar about drones at the moment brings a realisation that the few rules and regulations can be bypassed very easily, some freedoms are for evil not good and there are always shadowy figures willing to bend the rules in place. I met my first computer in Germany with the army, out in the field we had to dump all the 108's 1157's and go onto a system where i spent hours in my office writing out computer sheets by hand whilst a clerk wrote it all out again by hand it was then taken to base where a complete building was computer and feeders it was chaos. I went back to the old paper trail and was complemented of our efficiency as a unit. They got there after many years of trial and error. ICI dumped a large print out on my desk every Monday Morning FLOWN up from London overnight, around one third of it was up to date, it was a very long learning process indeed. My Sister and I had all the comics read by gas light sitting on the fender seats next to the fire but we also had Mechano, Arthur Mee's encyclopaedias and books from the local twopenny library for winter nights, summer we were outside after I had done my hour piano practice. Today it would seem everyone is to blame apart from the parents, the school, Council, Government should be doing this or that when it is down to the parents. If the children are out of control no one but the parents can get them back. We were brought up to respect that did not mean kow tow. I do not think the Troops on the D Day Beaches were fighting for the freedom of people to cyber bully others incognito. I love a rant me? Frank.
i quite like the W’rose green tokens ... the choice of charities usually includes at least one that I know from my work provides real help and support to disabled/disadvantaged/vulnerable children and/or struggling families ...
Very often the name and description of the organisation doesn’t show the real picture of the valuable work they do ... just saying
Oh yeah you need to read the bumf underneath. I read yesterday that 'paintball therapy for discommunicated nuns' was actually raising money to support their work in proving meals on wheels to agoraphobic homeless people. I gave my token to a scheme that is currently setting up a Brexit survivor's shelter though. It wasn't clear if it was like a bomb shelter or more of a safe place for people who can't get hold of decent French cheese any more but either will probably be useful soon enough.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Isn’t it funny how words like PC and do-gooder have perjorative overtones? Personally I would rather be correct than incorrect and do good rather than do bad.
My father lived most of his life with a form a brain tumour. It made him blind by his late teens, epileptic in his 20s, wheelchair bound in his 70s and dead before he was 80. It can't be proven, but his neurologist believed that it was caused by a railway station guard giving him a 'clip round the ear' when he was about 8 years old. It blighted the whole of his life. You can argue about whether smacking a child is a bad thing, but hitting anyone's head, let alone a small child, is very dangerous and not something to be nostalgic about.
@wild edges thank you. I now have tea all over my computer
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
A sorry and salutary tale, raisingirl. My wife is inclined to believe her inoperable brain tumour which has rendered her partially sighted is attributable to being cuffed on the back of her head in childhood by a hairbrush wielded by her grandmother.
I don't drink tea so my keyboard is dry but I'm with you RG. No such green tokens round here but our bank offers a debit card whose use builds up points for local investment in local businesses and communty projects.
Those tales of head-banging tumours are dreadful. I do wonder about the brain health of self head-bangers at concerts in the 70s. There must have been some concussion.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Posts
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I met my first computer in Germany with the army, out in the field we had to dump all the 108's 1157's and go onto a system where i spent hours in my office writing out computer sheets by hand whilst a clerk wrote it all out again by hand it was then taken to base where a complete building was computer and feeders it was chaos. I went back to the old paper trail and was complemented of our efficiency as a unit. They got there after many years of trial and error. ICI dumped a large print out on my desk every Monday Morning FLOWN up from London overnight, around one third of it was up to date, it was a very long learning process indeed.
My Sister and I had all the comics read by gas light sitting on the fender seats next to the fire but we also had Mechano, Arthur Mee's encyclopaedias and books from the local twopenny library for winter nights, summer we were outside after I had done my hour piano practice.
Today it would seem everyone is to blame apart from the parents, the school, Council, Government should be doing this or that when it is down to the parents. If the children are out of control no one but the parents can get them back. We were brought up to respect that did not mean kow tow. I do not think the Troops on the D Day Beaches were fighting for the freedom of people to cyber bully others incognito.
I love a rant me?
Frank.
You can argue about whether smacking a child is a bad thing, but hitting anyone's head, let alone a small child, is very dangerous and not something to be nostalgic about.
@wild edges thank you. I now have tea all over my computer
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Those tales of head-banging tumours are dreadful. I do wonder about the brain health of self head-bangers at concerts in the 70s. There must have been some concussion.