<\/p>\n
2016.02.22<\/p>\n
Very near my house is the ruins of a medieval priory. It\u2019s a nice spot, with some grass, some benches and several trees (including a pear tree from which I collect pears in autumn). The church building was one of few that was spared Henry \u2167’s mass act of state vandalism known as \u201cthe dissolution of the monasteries\u201d. But as bad luck would have it, royalists holed up in the priory church during the English Civil War, a hundred and some years later \u2013 and the republicans bombed them out, leaving it in ruins.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re interested in history, it\u2019s one of the places in Colchester worth a visit.<\/p>\n
The other day, I was walking past the priory and a lone tourist was standing at the gate that is the entrance to the priory grounds. The gate was closed; the tourist was disappointingly reading and re-reading the sign that explained the opening hours. The thing was that the gate should have been opened for another couple of hours. (It gets locked around dusk because drunks and junkies like to accumulate in such places in towns after dark.)<\/p>\n
I wanted to help the tourist but couldn\u2019t work out what to say. \u201cIt should be open but isn\u2019t\u201d wouldn\u2019t be of much use to him.<\/p>\n
When I got home, one minute’s walk away, I could hear an annoying buzzing sound that I hadn\u2019t previously noticed.<\/p>\n
So, what was going on? And what was the link between these two disparate \u201cmysteries\u201d?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s only a guess but I am pretty certain that the massive tree in the grounds was being cut back with a saw. Branches would drop to the ground. So the entire priory site was closed.<\/p>\n
This is what the English call \u201chealth and safety\u201d. Companies and councils take incredible precautions against even the slightest dangers. People cannot be trusted not to sit under trees from which branches are dropping; it\u2019s not enough to tape off the immediate area (in this case, about two percent of the priory site); the whole area has to be secured.<\/p>\n
In England, we swap stories about ridiculous examples of \u201chealth and safety\u201d. My favourite (i.e. most maddening) was one of my first, several years ago.<\/p>\n
I wanted to have a meal in a pub and watch a football game on the TV at the same time. I couldn\u2019t, they said, because the TV is on the ground floor and the kitchen is the basement floor. And the dumb waiter was broken. \u201cYou can eat downstairs or watch the football upstairs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCan\u2019t you just bring the plate up the stairs?\u201d I asked. \u201cNot allowed. Health and safety regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay, I\u2019ll carry it up,\u201d I said. Also, not allowed.<\/p>\n
Everyone in England will have a similarly surreal story.<\/p>\n
Obviously, the chance of someone hurting themselves by carrying a plate up a few steps is minuscule. But for the company, it\u2019s just not worth the risk. If someone did have an accident, the company would be liable for damages. And there is always the possibility of someone deliberately slipping on the steps because they know they can seek damages. So it\u2019s easier for the company to protect itself with such rules and regulations, however absurd the result.<\/p>\n
So I guess the only thing I could have told the tourist was that I am sorry but England is ridiculous.<\/p>\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Health and Safety Woes 2016.02.22 Very near my house is the ruins of a medieval priory. It\u2019s a nice spot, with some grass, some benches and several trees (including a pear tree from which I collect pears in autumn). The church building was one of few that was spared Henry \u2167’s mass act of state vandalism known as \u201cthe dissolution of the monasteries\u201d. But as bad luck would have it, royalists holed up in the priory church during the English Civil War, a hundred and some years later \u2013 and the republicans bombed them out, leaving it in ruins. If you\u2019re interested in history, it\u2019s one of the places in Colchester worth a visit. The other day, I was walking[\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-colinjoyce","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sankenbook.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sankenbook.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sankenbook.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sankenbook.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sankenbook.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.sankenbook.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108,"href":"https:\/\/www.sankenbook.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions\/108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sankenbook.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sankenbook.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sankenbook.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}