Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Cameron Speech HSE falsehood shock

re: That Conservative Party Conference 2008 Keynote Speech.


Ah Cameron, come in. Pull up a chair. Won't keep you a minute, young chap, you've had a busy day.

Nice speech, Cameron.

Nice but boring. I'd blame the policy wonks if I were you - they don't let you express yourself, do they? I suppose they red-crayoned all the jokes.

They let you down a bit on the Health and Safety bit, though.

That bit about the teachers? You remember? Can't put a plaster on a child's knee?

It isn't true.

It is a myth.

An untruth, Cameron. A little porkie pie. A falsehood. A wee fairy tale, a nasty little rumour put about by some tabloid hack no doubt.

Here it is. A poster. From the HSE site.


[Click in the box above to see poster. Sorry, you just can't get the programmers nowadays, can you?]

And here is the text from the HSE site.

We’ve often heard of teachers, volunteers and carers being told to ask parents for permission, or even requiring parents to drive over and put the plaster on themselves. This persistent myth causes a lot of unnecessary hassle and worry.

There is no rule that says a responsible adult can’t put a plaster on a child's minor cut. Some children do have an allergy to normal plasters. If you know a child is allergic you can use the Hypo-allergenic type of plaster. The important thing is to clean and cover the cut to stop it getting infected.


So. There we have it, in black and white. Sensible advice with which the medical profession will happily concur.

I hope you are going to get up in Assembly and say sorry to the school for slurring the good name of the Health and Safety Executive who generally do a good job. Except that they totally failed to do their duty at the Newbury By Pass Resistance actions.

As for the crack against "human rights", David. I am a bit disappointed. I just want you to bring me 1000 words this time next week on "Why it is not good practice for aspiring Head Prefects to produce sound bites denigrating Human Rights".

So, Cameron. Only 3/10 for the speech.

I know you can and will do better.


That's all. You may go now.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

HI spotted you on Iain's blog. Nice blog, but your problem with the pictures is caused by not saving it in the right place, thats why you see the little box with the 'x' in the corner. :)

Simple way to fix it is to delete the image and re-do.

Anonymous said...

BYW I thought Camerons' speech was excellent, I think he put it accross very well, and I agree with many blogs that he hit just the right note.

Anonymous said...

I think you need to check your facts - Cameron's speech was inspirational. I'm sorry you can't see that.

Ted Foan said...

Hello young man! Can't dispute what you have quoted from the HSE website but surely you must realise that a lot of this nonsense is driven by the concerns of local authorities being at risk of legal action.

For example, our local primary school was forced to buy a couple of hundred "larger-sized" chairs that can be used by parents when they attend concerts and other events. This was because a "larger-sized" parent slightly hurt herself when she sat on a "child-sized" seat and it collapsed. A claim for compensation was made and as a result all the schools in the LEA area had to buy bigger chairs out of the school budget. Our school also had a problem with storing all these extra chairs that are used only a few times a year.

And then there is the issue of having to have multiple CRB checks for being a school governor, a sports coach and for other voluntary work that might involve contact with children.

All this bureaucracy has to be paid for by the taxpayer and I think it is right to question how much of it is actually needed.

Oh, and by the way, I thought David Cameron hit the right buttons with his speech today. I trust him and his team to run this country. Brown and the Labour Party are a busted flush. Their incompetence and mishandling of the economy has driven us to the verge of bankruptcy.

DocRichard said...

Hi Ann, thanks for the advice. I wasn't criticising his speech, and I didn't say he wan't inspirational, Watervole. De gustibus non est disputandum. Just calling for his researchers to have their desks clear by 9.30 tomorrow morning.

And yes, Diabolo, I know there are 1001 examples of the stupidities associated with managerialization and its obsession with control. Managerialization is emboggering us all, even as we speak. It is everywhere.

But I think you'll find, Diabolo, that Labour's chief economic mistake was not to reverse Mrs Thatcher's deregulation of the money markets.