PrinceOfLeigh
Wigan, England
Upon noticing a couple of safety threads on CFC I feel it has become necessary to vent my anger regarding the safety first attitude of modern day society.
In recent times there have been many policies authorised on the basis that they increase safety. Speed bumps and speed cameras now populate almost every square inch of England. Restaurants will not heat food for children (baby food) due to health and safety. There are now very few jobs in which you dont need to fill out a health and safety form each time you decide to breathe. It seems that any policy will be accepted if the author simply suggests safety will be increased.
The result has been a creeping reduction in civil liberties.
One example is a duel carriageway near to where I live. It is the East Lancashire Road and runs from Liverpool to Manchester. It was a 70 mph straight road which was designed to transport people speedily throughout Lancashire. It carries literally hundreds of thousands of cars per day. Now, the speed limit has been dropped to 60 mph and roundabouts have been placed all along it. The result? The road has now become a car park for the majority of the day. The road was changed on the basis that 245 accidents had been had in four years! In four years millions of cars must have travelled along that road and yet as a result of 245 accidents everyone must now suffer.
Many trees in my local area have the lower limbs sawn off so that children will not climb them to reach conkers.
Health and Safety Legislation has reduced the ability of charitable organisations to provide services to others. Volunteers are no longer able to cook for others unless they have first taken a cookery course. Despite having cooked for their families for years.
Laws requiring the use of seatbelts in the front seat of cars or helmets to be worn on bicycles or motorcycles demonstrate how the State has taken the freedom of choice from its citizens. True, a helmet or seatbelt may save my life, but given that I am hurting no one other than myself if I dont use them, I should have the right to choose.
Whilst the attack on civil liberties is admittedly not as pressing as the concerns regarding anti-terror legislation, the epidemic has become so profound that Prince Charles was provoked into getting off his arse and wrote to the Lord Chancellor about his concerns. Some of the examples in this post are lifted from that letter.
Admittedly, as I work in a personal injury law firm, I suppose I am part of the problem. Fear of lawsuits from children injured at school has meant that tackle rugby is no longer played in schools. But the answer to the increasing litigious nature of society is not more rules, it is less. The blame culture has ensured that anyone breaking the rules is punished or sued. If we remove those rules we can live in a freer society in which we accept we are at risk, but we are free to take risks should we choose to do so.
The question I ask is this:
Would you prefer to live in a free society with risk, or a risk-adverse society in which everyone must obey the rules?
In case you cant tell I got done for driving without a seatbelt. £30 b*****d quid
In recent times there have been many policies authorised on the basis that they increase safety. Speed bumps and speed cameras now populate almost every square inch of England. Restaurants will not heat food for children (baby food) due to health and safety. There are now very few jobs in which you dont need to fill out a health and safety form each time you decide to breathe. It seems that any policy will be accepted if the author simply suggests safety will be increased.
The result has been a creeping reduction in civil liberties.
One example is a duel carriageway near to where I live. It is the East Lancashire Road and runs from Liverpool to Manchester. It was a 70 mph straight road which was designed to transport people speedily throughout Lancashire. It carries literally hundreds of thousands of cars per day. Now, the speed limit has been dropped to 60 mph and roundabouts have been placed all along it. The result? The road has now become a car park for the majority of the day. The road was changed on the basis that 245 accidents had been had in four years! In four years millions of cars must have travelled along that road and yet as a result of 245 accidents everyone must now suffer.
Many trees in my local area have the lower limbs sawn off so that children will not climb them to reach conkers.
Health and Safety Legislation has reduced the ability of charitable organisations to provide services to others. Volunteers are no longer able to cook for others unless they have first taken a cookery course. Despite having cooked for their families for years.
Laws requiring the use of seatbelts in the front seat of cars or helmets to be worn on bicycles or motorcycles demonstrate how the State has taken the freedom of choice from its citizens. True, a helmet or seatbelt may save my life, but given that I am hurting no one other than myself if I dont use them, I should have the right to choose.
Whilst the attack on civil liberties is admittedly not as pressing as the concerns regarding anti-terror legislation, the epidemic has become so profound that Prince Charles was provoked into getting off his arse and wrote to the Lord Chancellor about his concerns. Some of the examples in this post are lifted from that letter.
Admittedly, as I work in a personal injury law firm, I suppose I am part of the problem. Fear of lawsuits from children injured at school has meant that tackle rugby is no longer played in schools. But the answer to the increasing litigious nature of society is not more rules, it is less. The blame culture has ensured that anyone breaking the rules is punished or sued. If we remove those rules we can live in a freer society in which we accept we are at risk, but we are free to take risks should we choose to do so.
The question I ask is this:
Would you prefer to live in a free society with risk, or a risk-adverse society in which everyone must obey the rules?
In case you cant tell I got done for driving without a seatbelt. £30 b*****d quid
@ Taliesin 
People are weak and selfish and foolish, I say let them die, Darwinism is the solution to this problem, law suits for petty reasons or because of stupidity should be illegal IMO people should get 40 days for wasting the courts time, that'll make people think twice. Reserve law suits for genuine misconducts by companies and people both public and private, not for a greedy little arse with a penchant for filing pointless law suits to exploit the system, or for people who are too stupid to use the common sense they were born with.
)
