Frozen out by the nanny state

THE ice may be thick and the temperatures sub-zero: perfect conditions for a once-in-a-generation bonspiel – the first Grand Match for curlers on the Lake of Monteith in more than 30 years. But the curlers bargained without the health and safety brigade.

Concerns over public safety have obliged the organisers to call off the match. An application to proceed has had to negotiate a maze of bodies before a single curling stone can grace the frozen waters. Long gone are the days when folk can simply hold an event and make commonsense arrangements on safety. “Extensive discussions” have had to be held with parties including the Central Scotland Police, the Fire and Rescue Service, the Scottish Ambulance Service, the National Park Authority and Stirling Council. Remarkably, it did not involve a 30-strong delegation to the European Commission and a G20 summit. A spokesman said it had “not proved possible to address all health and safety concerns and receive the full backing of the emergency services within the time scales involved”.

It is “the nanny state gone mad”. But such is the way we live now, spontaneity itself is all but being banned. The danger is that, with the onward march of the clipboard masters, we will fall into a collective torpor and lassitude; nothing at all will be worth doing – a national fate far worse than any fall on ice.