And that reason is: because they're true. The cliche I'm thinking about is the one that runs something like "it's health and safety gone mad". The trouble with this and other such things is that they become cliches and are dismissed as such when actually the reverse is the correct response: don't dismiss them, embrace them! Cliches are true! That's why they're cliches, you dolt!
We all know that when a pub closes, an angel dies. As a result, heaven currently looks like the Somme on the morning after. I'm not sure what happens when a pub is desecrated; perhaps an angel loses the use of their wings for a period, or something. Anyway, it's bound to be something pretty nasty.
That being the case, there's one less angel flying around now following the horrific treatment suffered by a pub in Plymouth called the Minerva, this treatment meted out in the name of the dead hand of Health and Safety.
The ceiling of the Minerva, Plymouth: you won't see that again
The Minerva is more than 500 years old and was apparently the local of Sir Francis Drake. Many of its beams, and notably its staircase, are thought to have been taken from ships of the Spanish Armada. Its ceiling was covered with the scribbled messages of sailors about to set sail to do battle. Sounds like an important bit of history doesn't it, and one probably subject to all sorts of preservation orders, yes? No.
All this history has now been covered by several coats of paint. The reason? Apparently it was a fire risk. No matter that the place has stood for hundreds of years, unscathed by fire, despite for most of its life being full of smokers, inevitably often the worse for wear, warmed by open fires spitting sparks all over the place.
How do we let this sort of thing happen and what can we do about it? A lot of these regulations stem from our membership of the EU so we could tell them to go to hell but I'm not sure that would make much difference. What I'm wondering is, if it was OK for Nelson Mandela to be involved in killing people in the interests of ending the evil of racial discrimination, maybe it's OK to be involved in killing H&S busy-bodies so as to protect our heritage. Just a thought...
And yes it most definitely is health and saftey gone mad. But not just health and safety - our society as a whole for allowing this to happen.
Raise a glass and toast the Minerva and its sailors. You won't be able to read their messages again.
2 comments:
'Health and Safety' is often used as an excuse by people when they have made unpopular decisions for other reasons. Of course that writing wasn't a fire risk or, if it was it could have been treated in some way to mitigate the risk. Basically, it wasn't valued by the owner of the pub and they wanted to get rid of it. Don't believe their 'Health and Safety' lies!
A good point in general terms but I think quite wrong in this specific instance. But there's a wider point about the current fad for inventing laws and regulations...as if we didn't have enough...which reminds me I am overdue to blog on this topic!
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