I was watching The Making of Britain or whatever Andrew Marrs programme is called. They were showing the winter of, I think 1947 or 49 when the country ground to a halt. But it was proper snow. Feet of it.
And there were people, out and trying to clear roads, pavements and paths with shovels. making sure life could go on as best as possible even though there were power cuts. And rationing. And still having to go to school. And work.
No Health and Safety there, advising that they would be liable if anyone fell over where they had cleared a path, or that the school would be sued if a child slipped on ice and hurt themselves.
The other week, whilst Brentford laboured under the 1" of snow that fell, at two schools I know all the teachers were in but many pupils were missing. Two of the excuses that came up were;
from 1 girls parent : I didn't know the school was open because you didn't ring to tell us.
From a boy who lives within sight of the playground : I couldn't come in because there was black ice on the pavement.
Meanwhile, my niece flew out of Finland with 5 ft of snow on time, to get to Geneva. Unfortunatley the flight was via Gatwick where they were delayed for 2 hours because there was slush on the runway.
I can't help feeling that we've lost a bit of backbone in the past 60 years. And if we have, who can we sue?
No comments:
Post a Comment