Health and Safety – don’t make me laugh!

Why do we need a Department of Health and Safety? Surely the majority of sensible people can manage to deal with most problems in those two areas. I can see the necessity for inspectors in places of work and hospitals. But I am constantly hearing of people who are being paid to do unnecessary jobs such as teaching workers how to climb ladders or how to carry out procedures that anyone with any sense already knows. This is a branch of the ‘Nanny State’. The whole business smacks of trying to take away our freedom to do what we have learned to do for ourselves. The more things we try to do for other people the more we deprive them of their independence.

Society is a group of individuals who do their best when they are free to make their own choices in work, health and safety. Those people who are disabled may need help and ought to get it, but they too do not want to be told what to do all the time. The minimum of help encourages all of us to take responsibility for ourselves as far as we are able.

After World War 1, there was a lot of talk about it being The War to End all Wars . Did anyone prescribe how this could be done? Of course not! There are always big-mouths, usually politicians, who love to dream up statements to try to encourage enthusiasm in what they call “The People”. World War 2 knocked that idea on the head.

We have had no more world wars because the enormous progress of dangerous weapons would probably have killed both sides including civilians. Yet there have been several smaller wars that have no access to things like atom bombs.

Whenever the most horrible of murders, especially those of children, happen, we are fed the same old words “We must ensure that nothing like it ever happens again.” Do they think they are God or something? The steps taken to avoid such tragedies are usually further ways of curtailing our freedom.

For example, we can make all the laws we like but the lawless take no notice. People are banned from buying guns, but criminals have no difficulty in getting hold of them. When I was a child most little boys carried pocket knives. Now knives are forbidden. The assumption is that anyone who carries a knife is a potential killer.

A safe life is a boring life. All those who want to make their own minds up about what to do with their lives need to have the courage to take chances. The more out of the usual are our ambitions the greater the risk and the more the satisfaction when we succeed.

The more freedom we have the less likely are we to submit to dictators. We should all honour the rebel within us. If we do not, we will not have the guts to speak out and act when we feel we are being pushed into something we do not want to do. Satisfied electors keep an eye on government and do their best to keep their actions within reasonable limits.