Health and safety defended

I realise that after the last posting this blog risks becoming a listings guide to BBC radio after the fact, but all i do when i'm not at work is sit in a darkened room with a transistor and biscuits, and besides Radio 4 does seem to have the closest thing to a media backlash against the health-and-safety-gone-mad frothings of Jeremy Clarkson that we are going to get. Some comfort there.

From the News Quiz last Friday :

Sandy Toksvig: Andy, where were tossers tied up in red tape?

Andy Hamilton: This is a health and safety story from the Daily Telegraph, on its health and safety page. And like all health and safety safety stories, when you read the fine print it isn't a health and safety story, but the spin the papers put on it was that a pancake tossing race in Rippon had to be ditched because of health and safety fears. And you can see their point, frying pans can inflict horrendous injuries - you just have to look at Tom and Jerry. But I think it was as much a problem that they had to close roads, and I suspect people sat down and said "Shall we do the pancake race?" "No, it's bollocks. We only do it for the tourists, and it's February."

Phil Hammond: Surprisingly, I feel quite sorry for the Health and Safety Executive, because they were contacted and they hadn't said anything about it at all. It's the catch-all excuse isn't it? "I'd love to marry you darling, but health and safety" Or "I'd love your mother to move in with us, but health and safety".