Provost blasts health and safety 'obsession'
HEAD of the Common Riding Trust Provost Jim Henderson has warned that health and safety rules could force more changes to the big day, writes Bob Burgess.
And he has called for a halt to what he has branded the nonsense of the growing number of rules and regulations.
Provost Henderson used the platform of the Merchant Company Dinner to launch what he admitted was a tirade. He spoke of the ongoing fatal accident inquiry into the death of a woman who plunged into an old mineshaft in Ayrshire and whose rescue by fire crews was prevented by a health and safety directive from senior officers.
The provost said the incident was likely to become an appalling indictment on a national obsession with health and safety.
And he went on: “Why is it that we can no longer operate in almost any sphere without recourse to pages and pages of written procedures? Why is it that we must have rules for absolutely everything?
“And why is it that the most trivial details of the ways in which we conduct our affairs must be decided centrally with procedures and guidelines – regulations and controls, directions and commands – all being passed down to us mortals from on high?
“What has happened to leadership; what has happened to the exercise of individual initiative; what has happened to people taking responsibility for their actions; what has happened to decision-making and accountability?
“Must we all hide forever behind the protective walls of rules and procedures, and guidelines? What has happened to the sentient human being who can make decisions on the basis of competent perception and balanced experience?
“Are we all to become idiot robots subject to the algorithms of rules and procedure? Surely this nonsense must stop.”
Mr Henderson warned: “Health and safety has already had an impact on our Common Riding and, unless the obsession subsides, is likely to have even more effect in future. We must do all we can to ensure that common sense, reason and proportion will prevail.”
The provost made his remarks replying to the toast to the Merchant Company and Town and Trade, proposed by Rob Thomson.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Selkirk
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 7 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North east
