I will if you will

Mixed messages

RECENTLY I visited a large building site and found most of the workers were without helmets, proper gloves or boots; some did not know who the foreman was, and only one seemed to know how to contact him. It so happened that I was on my way to a meeting about the threatened closure of the Hampstead swimming ponds.

So while accidents are waiting to happen in the workplace, health and safety experts seem more worried about people swimming for fun.

Margaret Dickinson,

London NW3

Understanding risk

WHAT training, qualifications or experience does Libby Purves have in risk assessment or risk management? Does she actually understand the concept? Does she want the risks that children may face on school activities to be assessed or not? Remember the Lyme Bay canoe incident?

Gary Huckins,

Cleveland

Not my fault

ONE of the problems in our society is that too many of us want to find someone else to blame when things go wrong. An accident has to be someone else’s fault and the reason why some schools are restricting outings is the appalling growth in litigation. I am told that there are councils that claim to have no money to repair uneven pavements, but have a budget for legal claims against them by anyone tripping and hurting themselves.

How can we teach our young to be responsible for themselves if they are persuaded that they can make money out of any misfortune?

Anne Raisman,

London W4

Heavy lifting

HAVING been in the Merchant Navy, a most dangerous profession where there were many horrendous accidents involving my colleagues, I now work in a council library. Imagine my surprise at being sent on a course instructing employees on how properly to handle books. Careful, now. They’re heavier than they look.

R. Wilson,

rob_wilson15@hotmail.com

The state we’re in

LIBBY PURVES highlights the risk-averse culture that has been created in Britain since the beginning of the welfare state. In his recent book, James Bartholomew highlighted the adverse affects of this, noting among other things that people are more violent and less polite than they were 50 years ago and that the UK has a huge yob population. In this context, I draw your attention to a quotation by John Stuart Mill: “A state which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands — even for beneficial purposes — will find that with small men no great thing can really be accomplished.”

Robert Stewart,

Bermuda

Using your head

IMPOSED risk aversion exists in every facet of British life. We even have farcical regulations which forbid a person with a lifetime’s experience of electrical engineering from carrying out work in his own home. What more fundamental breach of human rights can there be than laws which outlaw the use of a person’s knowledge and experience?

Ron Bullen,

Chepstow

Job-creation scheme

EVERY time Tony’s cronies issue a piece of protective legislation it causes another little empire to appear, staffed by analysts, rule-makers and filing staff, together with an army of enforcers and inspectors and all their ancillary supporters. The process is called the “information economy” and “responsible governance”, both euphemisms for smoothly turning millions of otherwise unemployed people into contributing taxpayers at our expense.

That is the success and real meaning of new Labour. It is the engine of our successful modern economy, but it runs on hot air.

John Nash, Hayle,

Cornwall

Nannies and grannies

HURRAH for Libby Purves, but how do we get through to the Health and Safety Executive and our nanny Government?

I could give many examples to add to the catalogue of interference, but here is the latest from our village, which has 185 mostly elderly residents. Every electricity pole in the village has just been plastered with a bright yellow plastic sign which reads: “Caution — danger of death”. I have never seen any senior citizen climbing the poles in the past, nor is there any record of a death from that activity.

E. L. Ruckert,

Corton Denham, Somerset