Can I go out and play please mummy....

[Erfolg]

I remember the time when instruments electricians used Mercury as the heat transfer media on thermocouples junction to pocket. What surprised me was the weight, that a small container, about the size of half a jam jar, could be, so heavy that your brain thought, "some ones stuck this down as a joke".

 

I see that the government has announced that they are introducing road charging for utility companies who dig up the roads. It appears that the H&S measures have resulted in long periods of disruption. The new measures will incentive's more efficient planning and working.

 

Or does it mean that additional money will flow into the government coffers. Will the idea be extended to Motorways, I wonder?

 

In many ways H&S legislation has been successful. The down side has come from the push of H&S into areas where the issues are real but the occurrence is so vanishingly low, that the application of common sense and personal and community  responsibility are much more affective.

[Ross Clarkson]

This is brilliant, this is what life was all about. Going out and being a proper little boy! I remember throwing an aerosol can into a fire once..................you can guess the rest!!

I did it again though, i was just careful next time and further away!!!!! ha ha.

What really gets me is, on Xmas day the first thing i wanted to do after opening presents was to go out and play on them. Have you noticed these days, Xmas day is very quiet outside!!!!

 

I miss my time as a kid massively. The best times ever playing/exploring and making it what you wanted! Lots of kids are missing out these days.

 

On a different note, Timbo, do you know the Paddock family who used to own a couple of hotels on the sea front at Llandudno?

 

 

[Andy Butler]

I couldn't agree more with Timbo's post. We did all that and more but we never hurt anyone (apart from ourselves) and no one died.

It makes me sad that todays youngsters won't know the simple pleasure of trimming and chasing a towline glider or building a Keil Kraft warbird with half a razor blade as a modelling knife! I've cut more of myself than is intact, fallen off bikes and walls, waded into ponds after a model boat and guess what - I healed and learned something into the bargain. And we had proper school sports days where if you were good enough you won - kids like us didn't and we didn't get traumatised and parents weren't up in arms about the competitiveness - we simply had fun.

True story:

My (now grown up) daughter came home from school and showed me a story she'd written. The spelling wasn't brilliant but what surprised me was that it hadn't been corrected. When I tackled the teacher she stated that it wasn't school policy to correct spelling as it was deemed to be unfair and was an infringement of their rights as an individual!!!

When I was at school I was known by my surname and did spelling and times tables - and still remember both. As for antibacterial everything - just don't get me started.

 

[Simon B]

The funny thing about the first post is this:

 

If the generation who led such risky lives had it so good, why is it that generation brought in most of the H&S legislation that's so hated?  Most politicians who introduced it are baby boomers!

[Simon B]

Oh yeah and it was the baby boom generation that were voting when most of this stuff came in

[Tim Mackey]

Posted by Ross Clarkson on 22/12/2009 12:24:21:

This is brilliant, this is what life was all about. Going out and being a proper little boy! I remember throwing an aerosol can into a fire once..................you can guess the rest!!

I did it again though, i was just careful next time and further away!!!!! ha ha.

What really gets me is, on Xmas day the first thing i wanted to do after opening presents was to go out and play on them. Have you noticed these days, Xmas day is very quiet outside!!!!

 

I miss my time as a kid massively. The best times ever playing/exploring and making it what you wanted! Lots of kids are missing out these days.

 

On a different note, Timbo, do you know the Paddock family who used to own a couple of hotels on the sea front at Llandudno?

 

 

 Yes I do remember them...Brian I think was the lads name? Our Hotel was also right smack in the middle of the main seafront north parade....and one of my favourite "games" in winter ( when I actually slept in one of the rooms! ) was to see how many of the coloured light bulbs strung along the promenade I could take out with my .22 air rifle poking out of the bedroom window. Did pretty well actually

[Phil Claridge]

i used to live opposite our local british legion, and one night a visiting coach load wre making a hell of a racket outside, the driver kept revving his engine and blowing his horn, three neighbours asked them to quieten down but the driver gave them abuse so they said they would call the police, with that threat they all got on the coach and the driver was still blowing his horn. so i got up grabbed my bow and one arrow and fired at the side of the coach low down on the offside. the arrow went right in to the flights and the coach drove off just before the old bill turned up. i would have loved to know what the driver thought next morning. to timbo me and my brother shot out all the coloured bulbs at the legion one year

[Peter Miller]

I worked in a school for 5 years as a technician. I had a stand up argument with the head of English.  I said that the pupils couldn't spell, didn't have a clue about punctuation and their grammar was none existent .

 

He said that wasn't important so long as the could express themselves.

 

I pointed out that one has to be able to understand what was being written to see what was being expressed. I don't think he liked me!

 

The other thing that gets on my nerves.

 

Some kid gets killed. They promptly bring in councillors. In fact these can do more ham than good.

 

90% of the kids in the school didn't even know the victim, of the few that did half of them probably didn't even like him or care about it.

 

No one got counselling in the wartime, you got on with life. No one got counselling until quite recently. Now  you have to counselled if your pet hamster dies.

[flytilbroke]

Thats the kind of Firearms Offence which helped get the ten bob Post Office issued licence scuppered. This was a licence which was "needed" to possess Airguns or Shotguns. Now I know who to blame for me having to aquire full Firearms Certificates.

 

 I have always thought that considering an Airgun is not in itself a Firearm that any missuse should not have been registered as a Firearm Offence. For many years the included airgun infringements were and are used as a means and reason to keep tightening the Firearms Regulations. I have always believed that it is the offender who should be penalised, not the majority who were law abiding. I also thought that the deregulation of airguns off of a low level licence was stupid.

 

Och Weel.

 

Decent homemade "Bangers" now,,, I made some dents which would have the anti-terrorist squad going loopy. What fun we had.

[Ross Clarkson]

Small world Timbo, i used to go out with their youngest daughter!!

[Phil Claridge]

a certain type of weedkiller mixed with sugar made some VERY LOUD bangers ftb one such bang blew the side out of a derilect farmhouse, much to the surprise of the local bobby who was riding past at the time. another bang threw a  jcb bucket 20ft up in the air happy days i am one of 5 brothers and we were all up for anything and we all lived to tell the talem definately more by luck than judgement

[Pete D]

We could buy all the ingredients for proper black powder from the local chemist.  Powdered charcoal, saltpetre and sulphur as I recall.  We made up some great bangers and fired them with the element from one of those 6 volt gas r4ing lighters.  A couple of long wires then slam them across a 12 volt car battery's terminals.  Good stuff as I recall.  Also at cosford we got some tubing, closed off one end and broke up the ends of Swan Vesta matches.  Stick a small ball bearing down and heat up the end with a lighter.  Managed to put a hole into the billet dustbin and got 7 days jankers.

those were the days.

[Doug Ireland]

FTB, I'm still waiting for my compensation for the two handguns I had to surrender when they were made illegal after Dunblane!

[Peter Miller]

Ah Yes, Dunblane. Ban all handguns and the country will be safe. Except that gun crime is worse than it has ever been. Any nut can get a gun.

 

After Hungerford they banned automatic rifles. After Dunblane they banned handguns.

 

Any nut could get a shot gun or two and create just as big a massacre with them. Would they then ban the ownership of shotguns.  No, too many votes lost!

 

By the way, Our Olympic pistol team has to go to France to practice and even keep their guns there (Don't think we will win a medal in that event)

 

I asked the Home Office if they would be banning the foreign Olympic  teams from bringing handguns into Britain. Of course I got the usual slimy wiffle from them.

 

Signed, a nasty, cynical old man.

[Erfolg]

In our youth most, if not all, of us have done some things which are risky, some it would seem were bordering on reckless and down right dangerous.

 

I personally would not have wished my children to have undertaken the reckless activities and dangerous actions or been the victims of any. We should bare in mind that some youths payed a high price for those pranks which went wrong.

 

I will also confess, if I as an older citizen were to be aware of such actions today, I would be calling for action by the many authorities. Yes I would be all for H&S if it regulated these actions, to help us all to recognise and manage our personal and societal risks. What it does though is create an atmosphere where anything unregulated is out of bounds.

 

The big difference between the past and today is that we knew that our actions had dangers and there could be consequences to us. In this era, it will be someone else's fault, also in general any tendency of youth to be adventurous, is suppressed or heavily regulated. Often to the extent that those who break free, cannot see, or sense any danger.

 

I do have some sympathy with sporting hand guns. Although I do think that it is no bad thing if the persons permitted to use one should be carefully vetted, who ever they may be. A city not far from me recently had a shooting death, related to gang activities. Contrary to perceived believes that gun crime had become a thing of the past, local reporting revealed that hand gun use and shootings were as high as ever. It is just that the media is discouraged from reporting the none fatal incidents. It would seem that yet again government manipulation of official statics have massaged the seriousness of gun crimes down. Whilst making great play of limiting the legal ownership and use of guns etc, and the part it has played in crime reduction.

[Doug Ireland]

Posted by Peter Miller on 23/12/2009 08:08:04:

Ah Yes, Dunblane. Ban all handguns and the country will be safe. Except that gun crime is worse than it has ever been. Any nut can get a gun.

 

After Hungerford they banned automatic rifles. After Dunblane they banned handguns.

 

Any nut could get a shot gun or two and create just as big a massacre with them. Would they then ban the ownership of shotguns.  No, too many votes lost!

 

By the way, Our Olympic pistol team has to go to France to practice and even keep their guns there (Don't think we will win a medal in that event)

 

I asked the Home Office if they would be banning the foreign Olympic  teams from bringing handguns into Britain. Of course I got the usual slimy wiffle from them.

 

Signed, a nasty, cynical old man.

 Peter, I was given the option of taking my handguns to France and join a local club but as I live in the North East of Scotland that wasn't really viable.

[David Turner]

A quote from Benjamin Franklin...Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.

 

Look at Britain and tell me that these words do not resonate with you.

 

BTW, Erofolg, I am very much pro-gun...though I've never owned one. You might be interested to read a short essay "what I wrote" in response to a particularly tragic murder that occurred in Hull, just a few weeks ago.

 

http://www.skunkwerks.eu/ 

[ken anderson.]

long live the HSE/risk assesment's etc..........one of my uncle's died 6 year's ago from lung disease associatted with asbestos.......which he encountered in the shipyard's where he worked trying to earn a crust............no hse..risk assesment's..safety equipment or ppe....get on with it and that was that--if you didn't want to do it-tough..away you went-no job...no dosh....he was allowed a btle of milk a day to line his stomach!..yeah/yeah.....and his fellow workmate's were getting arm's/leg's chopped off and many permantly disabled for the rest of their day's........so really do we want completly unregulated everything?....no way....... personal view by...

 

       ken anderson.......not intended to offend or otherwise ... 

[Pete D]

I am now waiting for some bright spark to sue his Local Authority for removing so many of life's risks that as a child he did not learn about risk avoidance or management. 

 

The result being that he was unable to see or avoid a risk that, as children,  we would have learned to all about.  

 

I wonder!! 

 

Remember the school Authority that banned running in the playground because of the risk of falling?  Or the one that banned conkers?  I am so happy that the school that my granddaughter starts next term has recently held a conker bashing event, it was a great success and whenever we pass the school at playtime we can see the kids running and jumping about.  Needless to say it is a happy place which also manages to achieve good academic standards as well.

[Simon B]

Ken, i agree with you totally.

 

As for the guns argument, if everyone having weapons in the home made you safer, surely America would be the safest country on the planet and not one of the gun crime capitals of the world?

 

Anway, this thread's entering politics and i try to avoid that on here, so i'm off to talk about planes on another thread :D

[Simon B]

Come and offer me some advice on a large wingspan low wing electric model

[Doug Ireland]

My wife emailed this to me this morning, quite fitting for this thread I thought!

 

The Rocking Carol 
 
Little Jesus, sweetly sleep, do not stir; 
We will lend a coat of fur, 
We will rock you, rock you, rock you, 
We will rock you, rock you, rock you: 
 
Fur is no longer appropriate wear for small infants, both due to risk of 
allergy to animal fur, and for ethical reasons. Therefore faux fur, a nice 
cellular blanket or perhaps micro-fleece material should be considered a 
suitable alternative. 
 
Please note, only persons who have been subject to a Criminal Records 
Bureau check and have enhanced clearance will be permitted to rock baby 
Jesus. Persons must carry their CRB disclosure with them at all times and 
be prepared to provide 
three forms of identification before rocking commences. 
 
Jingle Bells 
 
Dashing through the snow 
In a one horse open sleigh 
O'er the fields we go 
Laughing all the way 
 
A risk assessment must be submitted before an open sleigh is considered 
safe for members of the public to travel on. The risk assessment must also 
consider whether it is appropriate to use only one horse for such a 
venture, particularly if passengers are of larger proportions. Please note, 
permission must be gained from landowners before entering their fields. To 
avoid offending those not participating in celebrations, we would request 
that laughter is moderate only and not loud enough to be considered a noise 
nuisance. 
 
While Shepherds Watched 
 
While shepherds watched 
Their flocks by night 
All seated on the ground, 
The angel of the Lord came down 
And glory shone around 
 
The Union of Shepherds has complained that it breaches health and safety 
regulations to insist that shepherds watch their flocks without appropriate 
seating arrangements being provided, therefore benches, stools and 
orthopaedic chairs are now available. Shepherds have also requested that 
due to the inclement weather conditions at this time of year that they 
should watch their flocks via cctv cameras from centrally heated shepherd 
observation huts. Please note, the Angel 
of the Lord is reminded that before shining his / her glory all around she 
/ he must ascertain that all shepherds have been issued with glasses 
capable of filtering out the harmful effects of UVA, UVB and the 
overwhelming effects of Glory. 
 
Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer 
 
Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer 
had a very shiny nose. 
And if you ever saw him, 
you would even say it glows. 
 
You are advised that under the Equal Opportunities for All Policy, it is 
inappropriate for persons to make comment with regard to the ruddiness of 
any part of Mr. R. Reindeer. Further to this, exclusion of Mr R Reindeer 
from the Reindeer Games will be considered discriminatory and disciplinary 
action will be taken against those found guilty of this offence. A full 
investigation will be implemented and sanctions - including suspension on 
full pay - will be considered whilst this investigation takes place. 
 
Little Donkey 
 
Little donkey, little donkey on the dusty road 
Got to keep on plodding onwards with your precious load 
 
The RSPCA have issued strict guidelines with regard to how heavy a load 
that a donkey of small stature is permitted to carry, also included in the 
guidelines is guidance regarding how often to feed the donkey and how many 
rest breaks are required over a four hour plodding period. Please note that 
due to the increased risk of pollution from the dusty road, Mary and Joseph 
are required to wear face masks to prevent inhalation of any airborne 
particles. The donkey has expressed his discomfort at being labeled 
'little' and would prefer just to be simply referred to as Mr. Donkey. To 
comment upon his height or lack thereof may be considered an infringement 
of his equine rights. 
 
 

Edited By Doug Ireland on 23/12/2009 12:15:43

[Ross Clarkson]

[Doug Ireland]

Had to cut this into two bits as it too long:

 

We Three Kings 
 
We three kings of Orient are 
Bearing gifts we traverse afar 
Field and fountain, moor and mountain 
Following yonder star 
 
Whilst the gift of gold is still considered acceptable - as it may be 
redeemed at a later date through such organisations as 'Cash for Gold' etc, 
gifts of frankincense and myrrh are not appropriate due to the potential 
risk of oils and fragrances causing allergic reactions. A suggested gift 
alternative would be to make a donation to a worthy cause in the 
recipient's name or perhaps give a gift voucher. We would not advise that 
the traversing kings rely on navigation by stars in order to reach their 
destinations and suggest the use of RAC Route finder or satellite 
navigation, which will provide the quickest route and advice regarding fuel 
consumption. Please note as per the guidelines from the RSPCA for Mr 
Donkey, the camels carrying the three kings of Orient will require regular 
food and rest breaks. Facemasks for the three kings are also advisable due 
to the likelihood of dust from the camel feet. 
 
Away in a Manger No Crib for a bed - This is definitely one for Social 
services! 

[ken anderson.]

might as well join in-------what's the difference between snowmen and snow women?..

 

.................snowball's.....          off the radio earlier...   'ss.....

 

             it's a cracker.ken anderson.