Brendan Hughes

Nice report which I couldn't resist passing to you, I think you'll agree with it.

Even better, it's done by the social care and employee rights people, rather than a bunch of right-wing anti-NannyState foamers.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Safety last: Britons urged to cast off the cotton wool and rediscover their spirit of adventure

scoobynutta555

Yep, I have to say I agree with all that. Excessive legislation, rep tape and nannying views are quietly ruining this country. It's quite ironic that some 'safety' measures actually promote dangerous activity. One example is the constant watching of a speedo to comply with draconion and non sensical speed limits, or looking for white vans parked up or Gatsos.

TopBanana

When the Guardian is running stories like this, you know it's gone too far.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

But you read it first on Scoobynet........about once a week for the last three years!

Alcazar

Tidgy

my god, a paper talking sence, what ever will happen next?

RichWalk

Glad to see some common sense, i thought reaching 40 was the reason I felt so bored, but when you look at the lack of imagination in this country (often compensated by heavy drinking & computer games) maybe I am wrong. I am supposed to be a risk taker but as a business grows its nearly always restrained by 'bean counters' who eventually push out the entreprenturial spirit. The media has made many of us far to vicarious, instead of getting out and doing something radical we just sit and watch it in minute detail.......

SJ_Skyline

Having a kebab last Friday night was a risk IMHO

Bubba po

When are you going to send me that video of you making a sandwich in your own kitchen and eating it?

Leslie

Today's risk assessment driven society was forecast some years ago when the general public did not believe it could happen in this country. We see it now of course since the PC Plonkers have been allowed by this sorry apology for a government to get into positions of control. We should take this as a warning of the future of course.

The whole of life is a risk from the moment of conception to the grave. By making all these nanny rules people are not learning how to deal with life in general or with incidents when they occur as they surely will as time goes by.

Les

RichWalk

That was banned under the 'infringment of artistic license' legislation

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

Maybe I will drive my car home slowely tonight just incase I have an accident rather than rag it home at 150mph.

I should be dead by now over and over again, some of the stuff I got upto as a kid and as a Venture scout but I am still going strong.

Kids today do not know what they are missing with all this nanny stuff.

davegtt

Thats who I feel sorry for. The kids are really missing out, cant climb trees or walls in fear of falling off. Im suprised we still have parks with roundabouts and swings as they can be misused. Heaven forbid

Really has become a sad world.

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

Do you remember those massive 20ft high slides that we used to have in parks that were concreted to ther ground? and the massive roundabouts that we used to get spinning as fast as humanly possible? or the swings with chains that you got 2 of your mates to push you on as hard as they could??

Now everything is tiny with bark or rubber matting underneath incase you fall off. We also had a mahoosive conker tree in our rec that we used to climb right to the top until the branches could barely take your weight.

The best one was going down to the Thames and jumping of the bridges between the boats coming up and down, we also had an island with a tree and rope swing on it, we used to climb to the top of that and jump in, the water was on a good day about 12 ft deep, I hit the bottom a few times but if you bannanad your body upon entry you only skimmed the bottom rather than hit it. after this got boring we went down to Temple bridge and leapt of that, it was a feckin long way down I can tell you. Jumping of Hurley lock gates and trying to avoid the lock keeper presented a whole new set of challenges

Another good one was shooting weirs in kayaks or surfing the standing waves from the open sluice gates, anti scour weirs were best as they presented more insentive not to screw up as you would probably drowned

Seal launching of Old Windsor bridge was another favourite along with wash hanging the Caversham Princess which was a steam ship with a massive water wheel on it, along with other crusiers. I thing the best one had to be wash hanging a cross channel ferry, wonder how many kids get to do that these days?

Surfing the 7 boar has to rate as one of the stupidest things you can do, I am suprised they haven't banned that yet!!

Taking crowthorne station roundabout at 90 mph in an XR31 must rate as one of the most stupid things I have ever done, I really thought it would slow down from 110 down Wellingtonia Avenue quicker than it did, good job nobody was coming round the roundabout at the time is all I can say.

Now abseiling is a pretty dangerous thing to do especially when you are challanged by your mate to get down a 120 ft rock face as quickly and with the least amount of bounces possible, so naturally taking teh challenge resulted in leaping off the cliff and letting go of the rope until you are about 10 ft off the ground then locking off, naturally the stretch in the rope allows you to touch down safely on the ground before firing you vertically upwards and into the rock face, where you need to stop bouncing and finish the decent. My mate was not so lucky and landed in a tree which we all laughed at but he was ok

Oh the good old days

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

Lots of the parks near me have had their swings removed cos of them being DANGEROUS....

oh well....

things will change someday. maybe.........

davegtt

LMAO @ Wurzel, you sound like your were very adventurous as a kid. Dont think I had the opportunity to be jumping off bridges all the time but remember running almost everyday over what seemed like 5000year old garages made of asbestos with unstable roofs, we fell through a few of those I can tell you, then the fun bit was breaking back out after seeing what interesting stuff people we're storing in there

SJ_Skyline

Young Hooligans!

andyfish

Used to spend the summer hols at my cousins house. we had a crackin rope swing at the side of the road hung from a huge tree - climbed adjacent tree and launched off. the art was to swing over the road and miss the double decker buses coming in both directions at rush hour. The fear was not that you had the chance of becoming a greasy spot on the road but my auntie norma would have castrated us if we were caught.

good fun.

Vegescoob

Shameful comments, young people might be reading and attempt to emulate some of the above mentioned dangerous activities.
Stay in kids and stay safe.

Fuzz

150... is that all?

I've been doing that since 1991 when I passed my test !

Still alive
Been banned a few times though

It must be hard to strike a balance though.
Say little jimmy falls off one of those high slides and spills all his claret over the concrete below, I'm sure the parents would want to know why there couldn't have been bark instead of concrete on the floor.
Are you to say "ahh well, he'll learn to hold on next time"

Andy

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

Yeah but legally on the public highway?

and yes little Jimmy should have held on and I also hope his parents got the bill from the council to clear up the claret from the concrete

How come we never fell off the slide back in our day but kids today do? are kids today not capable of holding on or supporting their own body weight then???

Leslie

Must be the obesity then!

Les