The health and safety brigade have much to answer for. Admittedly, they give me a laugh at times - unwittingly so, I am sure. I'm thinking of the warnings we see on various items, like the birthday card proudly proclaiming, "Now you are 2" while a warning on the packaging stated, "Not suitable for children under 3". Then there was the warning on a packet of peanuts, "May contain traces of nut"; and the label on a tin of tuna read, "Warning: contains fish". All quite ridiculous, of course, but basically harmless - except that very often the packaging should contain another warning,"Reading the warnings on this product may damage your eyesight as the typeface is so small".
However, a piece in the paper this week turned me incandescent with rage. That is an exaggeration, you understand. I wasn't really incandescent, nor was I in a rage. I may have fulminated a bit (if I knew what it is to fulminate), but it is probably just as well that I wasn't a witness to this piece of idiocy. A mother took her 6-year-old daughter shopping and decided to buy a box of Christmas crackers. (She had obviously not heard of the "Thanksgiving comes first" campaign.) At the checkout, the daughter helped her mother take things from the trolley and put them on the conveyor belt, including the box of crackers. The assistant refused the crackers, saying it was against the law to sell explosives to a girl of 6. The girl became upset, scared she might be sent to prison for breaking the law. As I say, it is as well I wasn't there: I really would have been incandescent with rage.
Given how small-minded people can be these days over what they think are health and safety matters, it is also just as well that I no longer run a scout troop. When I remember the things I had the boys do, things they thoroughly enjoyed, I do sometimes admit to myself that maybe, just maybe, I did stretch my luck on occasion. But in those days it was the done thing to teach a scout how to use an axe and to encourage him to light a fire. I also had them make a raft at one summer camp, a paddle-raft powered by a bicycle. They made a canoe and I accompanied the patrol leaders when we launched it in the sea. At least they did wear life-jackets!
It is such a shame that my grandchildren will not be able to enjoy such good healthy fun - all in the cause of health and safety.
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