A Good Safety Slogan
I took this picture on the site of the Royal Docks terminal of the new Emirates Air-Line.
A Good Safety Slogan
It’s so obvious, I’m surprised I’ve not seen it before.
Bicycle Helmets
I don’t like them for myself, just as I don’t like wearing a helmet when I ride a horse.
In Halfords on Friday, the manager said that bicycle helmets will soon be compulsory.
I am changing my mind, but not for myself. I get a bit fed up with kids and some older ones riding on the pavements in and out of the pedestrians. Most seem not to be wearing helmets. So perhaps on the spot fines would drive them off the pavements, as it’s not cool to be a nuisance with a helmet on.
The funny thing is that on paths shared by cyclists and walkers, like the Regent’s Canal, there doesn’t seem to be the same problem.
The Police Don’t Like It!
Surprise! Surprise!
The police don’t like the fact that David Cameron is calling in Bill Bratton.
I’ve met a few high ranking policemen and with one glorious exception, they were not a bunch I warmed to.
They generally want to do things their way and just be given the funding to make their own successes and failures.
I once heard a comment from someone who was selling technology to a particular Police Force. The Chief Constable said that he wanted the best system that money could buy, but he didn’t want the company to sell it to any other Force.
Surely, with Police technology and equipment, it should all be standardised, so that each force uses the same equipment, vehicles and computers for the same jobs. Some have said that the dreadful Soham murders happened because two Police Force computer systems were incompatible and couldn’t talk to each other.
Imagine what would happen if the computer systems at Barclays couldn’t talk to those at Lloyds and HSBC.
Chief Constables are always harping on about their links to the local communities and that every Force has different needs. If you believe some of the stories in the reputable Press, some of them have been behaving in the manner of rather poor dictators, led much more by the rules of the Data Protection Act and the Health and Safety Executive.
They must accept that they don’t have a monopoly of knowledge on policing in the UK.
The Real Safety Issue
At present I’ve got roadworks outside my house, as they replace the pavements. Safety is paramount on the site and we have plastic barriers everywhere, so no-one trips up. Unfortunately, last night one had probably fallen over and it tripped me over as I came in last night. Luckily I fell backwards with my bottom on the soft plastic barrier and only made myself look rather silly for a few moments.
This morning it’s raining hard and one of the workmen, is standing there unable to do anything, having a quick cough and a drag. He’s still got his high-visibility jacket, boots and hard hat on though.
He’s much more likely to die of cancer than in any accident on the site.
Perhaps as with many issues, we get our priorities wrong.
Are Long Dresses a Health and Safety Problem?
I seem to remember in the late 1960s, when women started to wear long dresses again regurlarly on the street, that the Underground warned them to be careful on escalators.
Now that such dresses are popular again, I am surprised that the warning has not been repeated in this Health and Safety obsessed world .
If you go back in history the first escalator on the Underground was installed in 1911 at Earl’s Court station. I’m not sure of my facts, but that surely was about the date, when skirts got a little bit shorter than floor length for general wear.
We’re Really In It Now
I was also given a tour of part of the Northern Outfall Sewer at Hackney Wick.
These pictures were not taken by me, as you can see I was rather protected again the effluent from half of London’s drains and toilets.
Note the quality of the brickwork, which is over a hundred years old, with some nearly fifty years older than that!
It should also be noted, that I was breathing a lot better in the sewer. I suppose there isn’t much pollen down there!
I also didn’t have any problems walking in the almost thigh high water. You have to feel your way with your feet, but then I was taught to do this in industrial environments that may be dangerous, by Health and Safety when I worked for ICI in the 1960s. The only problem I had was that when I first got down there it took a couple of minutes for my eyes to be able to see things properly.
But I survived it with ease and the only thing I couldn’t do was take the photos. The photos incidentally were taken by Daniel, who has his own blog called The Sewerman’s Log. It’s an excellent well-written insight into the day-to-day happenings in London’s sewers and what it is really like to work up-to-your-waist in things that polite society doesn’t talk about. This post is a good place to start in his blog, as it gives a good summary of the problems and also gives an insight into how Dan Snow was kitted up for his recent television series.
The Queen’s In Control
The Queen has released a photograph of herself and her two youngest grandchildren riding together in Windsor Great Park.
It’s here on the BBC.
I’m glad to see The Queen is not wearing a hard hat!
How To Get A Chair Home From IKEA on a 341 Bus
I went to IKEA today to see if they had any suitable lights. I did buy one and it might be suitable, but I’ve got to buy some bulbs first.
However, when I went to get the bus home, this chap was taking home a basket chair on the 341 bus, by sitting on it in the wheelchair space.
How To Carry a Basket Chair on a 341 Bus
I hope he got home without any trouble from Health and Safety. He seemed happy enough when I got off the bus at Northumberland Park.
The Athens Metro
The Athens Metro is fairly modern, as a lot of it was built for the 2004 Olympics. But beware, if you’re visiting the city in the next few months, that a large section of the original line 1 is being rebuilt. No-one seemed to know, when it would be fully reopened.
It is an efficient, if very busy system and you can buy a 24-hour ticket for just 4 euros.
I liked these seats I saw on one of the stations.
Seats on the Athens Metro
Quirky and easy to see. But I don’t know what Health and Safety would say as they appear not to be fixed down.
They also indicate which way the escalators are going. London Underground please note!
Along the Regent’s Canal to the Angel
I’m about a five or ten minute walk to the Regent’s Canal and today, I walked along the canal to the Angel as it was starting to get dark.
I can remember some of this area in the 1970s and to say it has improved is one of the biggest understatements, anybody can make. I even saw a Norwich City supporter enthusiastically spinning for pike.
This is the third time, I’ve lived near this canal.
In the 1970s C, myself and our young family lived in St. John’s Wood, just north of the canal and we would cross it by the London Zoo to get into Regent’s Park. You used to see the occasional narrow-boat or pleasure craft, but I don’t think there was any easy access to the tow-path. It would probably have been deemed to dangerous anyway to take three small children alongside the water. So when we decry Health and Safety for ruining our pleasure, there must be many more examples like the Regent’s Canal towpath, where different interests coexist together in complete safety.
And then, a few years later when we lived in the Barbican we would often walk up to the Angel to shop walking right past the City Road Basin on the canal. But sadly we never explored.
It is often assumed that canals like this ceased to be commercial arteries, when the railways appeared, but the Regent’s Canal was still busy with freight until the Second World War. It also has another purpose in London’s infrastructure in that under the tow-path for quite a way is one of the city’s main electricity distribution mains. Believe it or not, but the cables at kept cool, by using water from the canal.
The Anonymous Widower 