Health and safety gone mad!

[ChasB]

I've just come back from Venice. My first trip, and a wonderful experience - once I learnt to ignore all the other tourists!

One thing that struck me, as a boater, was the lack of health and safety requirements. Time and again I'd think "You could never do that back home!" For instance, there were no guard rails around the canals. Here they would be compulsory. Hell, here we have them on every flat roof in sight! But there they rely on common sense. But apparently we Brits no longer have any of that.

At one spot some workmen were putting in a new pontoon with a small crane. It was a little hazardous to stand close by, so the sensible Italians stayed back a few steps. However one tourist stood taking photos with her back to them (and really they were very noisy, so she couldn't have avoided noticing them) while the locals watched her slightly alarmed. She seemed to lack any sense of personal safety, and my guess is that her thinking (if you can call it that) was that in the absence of a clear written sign, or someone, telling her otherwise then she was safe.

Has our common sense here really atrophied so badly?

I read this today: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...-handrails.html

Madness.

And don't blame the EU - Italy is in the EU. If they can ignore daft directives then so can we.

 

[Ariadne]

The days of people taking responsobilities for thier own actions died when the Government of the day introduced 'No Win, No Fee litagation'.

Nothing to actually do with Health and Safety as it actually promotes the 'people taking responsobilities for thier own actions' line.

Blame the lawyers who chase ambulances etc, where there is blame there is a claim (or we'll make one up to suite).

Where the US go the UK and Eire will blindly follow.

 

[sailorman]

its all insurance driven as in the usa + "no win no fee- kin lawyers".
we are just back from Oostende with similar experiences + the noticeable lack o
f cctv, i didn't see 1 cctv or policeman around the town centre.
Blame our lawyers & town hall polititions

 

[maxi77]

No I don't blame the EU, like most of these things it is all our own fault, people have found if they make a claim they can get money from some one else for free, so what do they do, claim at the drop of a hat. Our PYO farmer had suffered a claim so his insurers not unsurprisingly put his premium up and asked him to do some things to make further claims less likely. If any one is to blame it is the ambulance chasing sector of the legal profession who get insurance companies to pay out lots of small claims because paying them is cheaper than defending them, a trick they have learned from our US cousins who have been playing that game for years.

In the end it's as ever our own bloody fault.

 

[Dave_Rolfe]

Yes, but we are British and always do as we are told. Think of all the building sites that you see in Spain with no barriers around openings for balconies, no Heras fencing to keep out people etc etc. We always do as we are told no matter how stupid it is. Look how many road signs you pass when driving along the roads.

Let people take responsibility for themselves. One or two may get hurt (it may serve them right) but the rest of us would lead much more fulfilled lives.

 

[Noddy]

Isn't the Mistley Quay debacle a Health & Safety inspired phenomenon?

P

 

[jb2008]

[ QUOTE ]
For instance, there were no guard rails around the canals. Here they would be compulsory.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, can't move round Manchester canals for protective railings:-
http://www.photoeverywhere.co.uk/britain/manchester/mancheter_canal_towpathPC299136.jpg

http://www.zulu-warrior.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/manchester-castle-street-google.jpg

 

[robind]

Dont knock the H&SE industry it keeps 600,000 people employed and shows only good on the governments employment figures. Now industry (health ,house sales) in fact all auditors also show up well as an employer and a host of other growing industries, which are needed ?

 

[sailorman]

No the owners undoubtedly want to eventually build on the site. they need to ensure no public access rights

 

[sarabande]

"it keeps 600,000 people employed "

are you saying that about 1 in 5 persons in the UK works in HSE ?

 

[ChasB]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
For instance, there were no guard rails around the canals. Here they would be compulsory.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, can't move round Manchester canals for protective railings:-
http://www.photoeverywhere.co.uk/britain/manchester/mancheter_canal_towpathPC299136.jpg

http://www.zulu-warrior.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/manchester-castle-street-google.jpg

[/ QUOTE ]

My local. See all that fencing (the white and the black)? Wasn't there a couple of years ago. But that pics old - now there's another layer of added protection there to stop you idiotically wandering off the edge... /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[gandy]

No such worries in the Netherlands ....

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

It's a sad and rediculous situation when people cannot take responsibility for their own actions and parents take responsibility for their children.

 

[sailorman]

Oostende main shopping Street 4 or 5 yrs ago

Over our Whit Bank Holiday period
Note the 8 x 4 sheets of ply over trenches to gain access into the shops

 

[Steve_Jones]

That cycle lane sign HAS to be photoshopped, surely that can't be a cycle lane??!!

 

[ChasB]

Dutch anarchists /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[wotayottie]

The example you quoted isnt about health and safety but our stupid legal system that makes the occupier liable if someone trips up. That liability is under common law, has always been there but brought to the front by NuLabour allowing no success no fee ambulance chasers.

A lot of what people call H&S is such legal problems

 

[sailorman]

In One

 

[Csail]

I ignore the rules now,,,,,there are just too many so i really don't care about a few hundred quid fine for something i enjoy doiing.I'm not naughty but these stupid laws wind me up so f*** the law in the uk.

 

[maxi77]

Some time ago my little brother was a building engineer and did clerk of works jobs, and the problems he had getting builders to follow even the most basic safety rules for their own safety were immense. Building sites have only managed to enforce the levels of safety they now have through having policies of instant dismissal for breaches, yet they are still one of the more letha work environments.

H&S is always a joke until it is your or your loved ones life that is affected.