The British media often get very excited about alleged health and safety excesses. ‘The Metro’ has published a rather alarmist tale for the festive season. Ignoring that health and safety measures prevent many an accident at work, some like to ridicule the health and safety concept with amusing anecdotes.
Father Christmas, the lovable hero of children everywhere, is allegedly under attack as being a poor role model. ‘The Metro’ has interviewed an academic in Australia in order to substantiate their case. They found researcher Dr Nathan Grills of Monash University in Melbourne and quoted the health and safety ‘expert’:
“We propose a new image for Santa to ensure that his influence on public health is a positive one.”
The eccentric Dr Grills apparently claimed that leaving a small glass of sherry out for Father Christmas with a mince pie could be interpreted as condoning drink-driving.
No society wants to increase the chances of a road traffic accident, but imposing codes of practice on arguably non-existent people with sleighs may be going too far. However, in a year when it emerged that reports of health and safety concerns about playing conkers had largely been fabricated, one wonders whether this news item has any veracity whatsoever. Sometimes it seems just as sensible to believe in Father Christmas as in the outpourings of sections of the British press. Critics of current health and safety regulations should look at the statistics relating to the likelihood of an accident at work, after the wonderful festive season is over for another year.
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