Lawyers and Health and Safety - sorry NB

T

tillergirl

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I always promised myself I'd never do a non-boaty post merely because I don't really have much to say but I can't keep quiet any more.

Yesterday, my wife put some money in a Poppy tin and picked up two poppies - sorry said the lady, we can't give you pins anymore, its Health and Safety.

The time surely has come where lawyers and Health and Safety have reached the stage where their disadvantages outweigh the advantages and they must go - all of them - as soon as possible. Surely the ordinary person has got to speak out and say enough is enough, its crazy. It isn't funny anymore. If we let this carry on lawyers will destroy civilisation

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Bought a box of fireworks in Homebase. Chose the box I wanted from the illustration they had at the desk and the assistant said he would go and get them. They are kept in a steel container in the warehouse, he said. OK so far.

He the returned through the store trundling a large galvanised dustbin on a trolley. Arriving at the checkout, he produced the box of fireworks from the dustbin, put them in a plastic carrier bag and told me I must leave the store immediately - Health & Saftey he said.

Now if that isn't OTT, I don't know what is!

I asked him if I got the dustbin to take them home in, since they were so hazardous!

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Pensioner in local shop attempting to buy sparklers...assistant asks for proof of age...pensioner provides pensioners bus pass.

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.troppo.co.uk> Follow the Tightwad Sailor</A>
 
But you can buy large sticks of dynamite from a french newsagent. Unfortunately No1 Moose has discovered this/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif

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Moose
 
Is very good stuff for fishing if that is what he has in mind or is looking for uses for it /forums/images/icons/smile.gif.

John

<hr width=100% size=1>I am the cat but I am only 6.
 
I can testify that it is possible to launch a whole bleedin' rose bush some 6ft into the air with one of these things/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.phantom37.co.uk>http://www.phantom37.co.uk</A>
Moose
 
Tell me about it!

Turned up one evening last week to do a quick job in an office block in central London and was told we couldn't start work until the method statement and risk assesment had been studied and approved. These had been sent early in the day but there had been a shift change in the meantime and the incoming people were doing an excercise in a'hole covering.

All our prices now include BAT (Bullsh*t added tax). This is in addition to the Ken Livingstone retirement fund to which I contribute frequently.
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Everything we do carries an element of risk. Some of these risks should worry us, most of them should not. Once upon a time there was a wonderful technique for differentiating between the two - it was called common sense. Does anyone think it will ever come back into fashion?


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From what I remember about about 'common sense', I think somebody like Nietzche said it was the education of savages, and somebody wiser than him said it wasn't that common.

Am off to do some repair work in a factory tomorrow and have to sign some H&S (or is it SHEF nowadays?) statement just to turn up.

Blame the solicitors and the compensation culture. Or summat.

<hr width=100% size=1>It could have been worse - it could have been me.
 
It's just as bad at sea, but what really winds people up is where it is done to satisfy the lawyers and any really difficult (i.e. expensive) safety problems are ignored or shunted onto the lower ranks' reponsibilities to get the fat cats in the boardroom off the hook.

On a recent visit on board an ROV operating ship, guests were not allowed on deck without hard hats (OK, if the cranes are operating), gloves (I ask you) and safety goggles (good grief). And they had to be escorted at all times by a member of the ships crew. You just try tying a knot (for which you need an accredited certificate) or undoing a bolt with that lot on. For the compulsory safety briefing, however, they are led around the ship, and the deck, which has no rails in places and the usual quota of unmarked trip hazards, in the dark, with no lights or torch. The world's gone mad, I tell you!


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I agree - its absolutely looney, but as I'm married to a solicitor I do get a bit miffed (as does my wife) that all the woes are blamed on the lawers. Most of the silly rules like this, and not being able to start work until risk assesments are complete etc etc are directives from the HSE and have nothing at all to do with lawyers. The HSE has been allowed to run rampant under the present government and basicially seems to look at every 'theoretical risk' under the sun and then make it 'illegal' regardless of wether the theoretical risk ever translates to an actual accident. I put 'Illegal' in quotes as there is very little legislation on this as the HSE is the body which determines the 'reasonable' lengths that people must go to and offer the guidelines.
When prosecutions occur they are proseuctions by the HSE (using the CPS lawers) NOT lawsuits by private individuals.
Yes there are the occasional dodgy lawsuits in this country but they get blown out of all proportion by the tabloids, and very rarely are the results published, as they quite often fail.
Everyone has a duty of care to look after the safety of peopl and if you do something really stupid and put people in danger, then quite frankly you deserve everything you get.
Mostly the "we're scared of being sued" argument can be replaced by "I'm just a jobsworth and can't be bothered to do this" - Teachers and school trips springs to mind which has been in the news lately. Yes some teachers have been sued or prosectued but you deserve to be if you take kids up mountains in shorts and t-shirts and no compasses or if you fall asleep at the wheel driving kids in a minibus without a psv licence and kill them. No profession or person should be protected by law against their own negligence.
I'm sorry if this sounds like a rant, but most lawyers I know work just as hard and are just as dedicated and professional as everyone else, but get very little thanks for the work they do.

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I expect that they'd have a whole file of risk assessments for that one! They weren't too happy about our blue boiler suits either. It should be orange, for when you fall into the sea.

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<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>

as I'm married to a solicitor I do get a bit miffed (as does my wife) that all the woes are blamed on the lawers. Most of the silly rules like this, and not being able to start work until risk assesments are complete etc etc are directives from the HSE and have nothing at all to do with lawyers.

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Have a look at the background of a large percentage of politicians and you will find that they are lawyers and this has always been so. If you read any of the laws and directives, they obviously need lawyers to interpret, and trips to court to get right,

Anyone think that this is by chance????

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Agree 100% about the HSE. I remember when the factory inspector was a time served member of the industry he policed and invariably treated with respect. These days he is a spotty youth with a clipboard. (Or are they just naturally getting younger like the proverbial policemen?)
At Canary Wharf a few years ago they spent weeks laying out pedestrian routes to separate workers on foot from construction traffic. Some of these were so convoluted that they were universally ignored. Meanwhile some of the things that were going 30 storeys above ground were terrifying but the inspectors never went up there.


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Nope, so they can see where the bits are after they've done an emergency turn and stuffed you through the bow-prop.

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Sorry to put the dampers on what seems like a rant that will go for ever. I've bought my poppies and they have come with pins. Has anyone asked HSE if this is true and not just a bit of fluff from a poppy person who'd left her pins at home?

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