Here's one to boil your blood before lunch!
Cleverly disguised as a responsible adult
Join Date: May 2007
Location: On the western edge of The Moor
Age: 67
Posts: 1,100
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Perhaps this might put some press reports into context: - HSE Press Office - putting the record straight in 2011
It is nothing to really do with the HSE (government) more about councils & organisers scared of liability.
It is nothing to really do with the HSE (government) more about councils & organisers scared of liability.
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Temporarily missing from the Joe Louis Arena
Posts: 2,131
Received 27 Likes
on
16 Posts
West Lakes - Spot on. I fear though the outrage bus has already left town with all the usual suspects holding on for dear life on the outside.
The press reports "H&S gone mad" and the chattering masses dive on, all the while failing to see the insurance industry representatives shuffling out stage left.
Blaming the HSE is easy, after all the red tops and the papers obsessed with Princess Diana feed the willing but unthinking blobs that make up society everything they need. Government institutions (everyone loves kicking civil servants), a story so daft you can hardly believe it (and perhaps shouldn't) with a side serving of things the public like to consider theirs (the military, hanging baskets in city centres, etc), its all there, ripe for the picking.
Perhaps one day the heaving mass of idiocy known as 'the general public' will, as one, become a little more learned and start to actually think about the garbage they are being fed but unfortunately I doubt it will happen.
Best service that bus as soon as it gets back, no doubt it will be needed again soon.
The press reports "H&S gone mad" and the chattering masses dive on, all the while failing to see the insurance industry representatives shuffling out stage left.
Blaming the HSE is easy, after all the red tops and the papers obsessed with Princess Diana feed the willing but unthinking blobs that make up society everything they need. Government institutions (everyone loves kicking civil servants), a story so daft you can hardly believe it (and perhaps shouldn't) with a side serving of things the public like to consider theirs (the military, hanging baskets in city centres, etc), its all there, ripe for the picking.
Perhaps one day the heaving mass of idiocy known as 'the general public' will, as one, become a little more learned and start to actually think about the garbage they are being fed but unfortunately I doubt it will happen.
Best service that bus as soon as it gets back, no doubt it will be needed again soon.
Cleverly disguised as a responsible adult
Join Date: May 2007
Location: On the western edge of The Moor
Age: 67
Posts: 1,100
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
And this morning
Chris Grayling publishes list of ten most bizarre health and safety bans - Telegraph
it kind of puts the bus off track!
Chris Grayling publishes list of ten most bizarre health and safety bans - Telegraph
it kind of puts the bus off track!
Guest
Posts: n/a
I saw the show on the first Wednesday and did think the pirate bit was a bit, well, odd, to say the least. And where was 'elf 'an safety when, on that Weds night - when it absolutely hissed down, solid, for the whole show - the programme seller working our seating block went base over apex down the steps?
Life is sometimes dangerous. Acknowledge the fact that you are aware and accept, and crack on. Simples. Oh, listen, insurance company shareholders becoming restive!
PS Trust the Cloggies to prove that you can ride a bike and play the trumpet, even in the hissing rain and in formation too.
Life is sometimes dangerous. Acknowledge the fact that you are aware and accept, and crack on. Simples. Oh, listen, insurance company shareholders becoming restive!
PS Trust the Cloggies to prove that you can ride a bike and play the trumpet, even in the hissing rain and in formation too.
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: UK
Posts: 244
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Boarding pirate vessels by sliding down ropes sounds a bit risky. What if the vessel's crew are equipped with AK47 or RPG? Surely it's far better to use the traditional approach: wireless/Aldis/semaphore/signal flags/loud hailer/ one across the bows, then destroy the wheelhouse.
Hmmm,
Firemen should not enter burning builders, policemen should not chase baddies with guns or go fast in cars, electician should not handle wires etc etc plus don't strain to hard on the throne you could do a damage.
Firemen should not enter burning builders, policemen should not chase baddies with guns or go fast in cars, electician should not handle wires etc etc plus don't strain to hard on the throne you could do a damage.
If people didn't immediately sue organisations when things go wrong H&S wouldn't exist...
Speaking as an ex-safety engineer it is always far more about avoiding litigation than it is about stopping people getting hurt.
Speaking as an ex-safety engineer it is always far more about avoiding litigation than it is about stopping people getting hurt.
Having spent time in Germany, it was refreshing to see the generally higher tolerance of risk. Litigation for personal injury is almost unknown, with the emphasis being on personal responsibility, rather than legislating for stupidity.
A typical example was our local swimming pool in Geramny, which had the usual death-defying tube slides. There was a pictographic safety poster which made it clear to all what the rules were and these were then cheerfully ignored by all those who used it. Result? Not many died, at all. If anyone had been injured, it was because they broke obvious, common-sense rules. If the same slide was in use in the UK, there would be a life guard on duty, tearful children who were a centimetre too short to use said slide, parents who could not accompany their more fearful children down the tubes, etc etc.
The cafe in the same swimming complex sold the usual selection of snacks -and alcohol! Imagine the outcry in the UK if alcohol was served at a swimming pool? We spent a lot of time at the pool with our young kids and never once did we see any alcohol related problems - and it was a simple pleasure to have a weissbeer, on a sun-lounger, whilst the kids were hurling themselves off the high diving board - again, no one died!
I support C-Bert's tennent that the imposition of these often preposterous 'rules' is about the avoidance of litigation and not reduction of accidents. I remonstrated at my son's (UK) primary school which would not allow a rugby ball in the play-ground, on the basis that it encouraged 'rough play'. Oh, unlike the antics of supporters of that other, round ball game, then? I susbequently learned that it was more to do with the high insurance premiums for personal and public injury liability that the school had to stump up.
Bah, humbug. Ding ding - all aboard the Outrage Bus!
A typical example was our local swimming pool in Geramny, which had the usual death-defying tube slides. There was a pictographic safety poster which made it clear to all what the rules were and these were then cheerfully ignored by all those who used it. Result? Not many died, at all. If anyone had been injured, it was because they broke obvious, common-sense rules. If the same slide was in use in the UK, there would be a life guard on duty, tearful children who were a centimetre too short to use said slide, parents who could not accompany their more fearful children down the tubes, etc etc.
The cafe in the same swimming complex sold the usual selection of snacks -and alcohol! Imagine the outcry in the UK if alcohol was served at a swimming pool? We spent a lot of time at the pool with our young kids and never once did we see any alcohol related problems - and it was a simple pleasure to have a weissbeer, on a sun-lounger, whilst the kids were hurling themselves off the high diving board - again, no one died!
I support C-Bert's tennent that the imposition of these often preposterous 'rules' is about the avoidance of litigation and not reduction of accidents. I remonstrated at my son's (UK) primary school which would not allow a rugby ball in the play-ground, on the basis that it encouraged 'rough play'. Oh, unlike the antics of supporters of that other, round ball game, then? I susbequently learned that it was more to do with the high insurance premiums for personal and public injury liability that the school had to stump up.
Bah, humbug. Ding ding - all aboard the Outrage Bus!
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Australia - South of where I'd like to be !
Age: 59
Posts: 4,261
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Ross
Are you referring to "we" as in US or "we" as in UK ?
From memory, British troops used them (bayonet charge) a couple of times during the last Iraq war. I believe one was because the insurgents were firing from within a crowd of civilians and so the British found it hard to fight back,
resulting in the Officer leading a bayonet charge.
I think the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders did one as well. Not sure if it was the same.
Will try to look up a reference.
.
Are you referring to "we" as in US or "we" as in UK ?
From memory, British troops used them (bayonet charge) a couple of times during the last Iraq war. I believe one was because the insurgents were firing from within a crowd of civilians and so the British found it hard to fight back,
resulting in the Officer leading a bayonet charge.
I think the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders did one as well. Not sure if it was the same.
Will try to look up a reference.
.
Do those still get any use? I can't remember the last time we had a bayonet charge.....
If you see UK footage from Afghnistan, principally Helmand Province, you will see bayonets fixed during patrols and compound clearances. There is one iconic image of a Royal Marine Lt calling in a joint fire, surrounded by smoke and by his chaps all with fixed bayonets.I was issued one when I was out there and it never left my rifle roll, indeed I couldn't find it on my return and I was billed by Uxbridge a whopping GBP15.00 for losing it. At that price it would have been an attractive item to lose...
However, although bayonets are meant to encourage the fighting spirit, I'm not sure that the image of a middle-aged, bespectacled, slightly portly, senior RAF officer leaping over the parapet with a bayonet would inspire the troops. Quite the opposite, in fact!
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Australia - South of where I'd like to be !
Age: 59
Posts: 4,261
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
A couple of photos here of RAF with Bayonets
Royal Air Force School of Training 100th ENTRY
and modern one's here
RAF Benson - News and Weather
Royal Air Force School of Training 100th ENTRY
and modern one's here
RAF Benson - News and Weather
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Madison, WI
Posts: 299
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
If the same slide was in use in the UK, there would be a life guard on duty, tearful children who were a centimetre too short to use said slide, parents who could not accompany their more fearful children down the tubes, etc etc.
Another recent bayonet charge. This one in Afghanistan 2008/2009, led by a Corporal from 45 Cdo, who was awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross for that and other acts.
