In My View
Posted by Robert Walter, MP for North Dorset, at 15:34, Wed 12 November 2008:
Having a large rural constituency means that on Remembrance Sunday I can really only be in two places for the annual armistice services. This year I laid wreathes in Shaftesbury at 11 0’clock and in Blandford at 3 o’clock.
These are always moving services, but what struck me this year was that there not only more people present but there were lots of young people. We are of course so lucky to have so many young men and women prepared to risk their lives for the rest of us to live in peace. All too often those young people make the ultimate sacrifice. I believe their service is now recognised by more and more people with no experience of service in our forces.
The service on Tuesday, Armistice Day itself, which took place at the Cenotaph in London, was particularly moving. I can see the Cenotaph in Whitehall from my Westminster office window, but I know anyone watching our three oldest veterans, all over 100 years old, will have been so proud of them and the millions of men and women they represent.
Lest we forget.
The stupidity of officialdom has reached even these services of remembrance. The Chief Executive of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA) said this week that the health and safety culture had gone too far, when an 88 year old veteran was told it was unsafe for him to carry his regimental flag on Sunday. As the ROSPA chief said “the application of common sense and balance is much more reasonable than seeking mindless increments towards absolute safety”.
I could not agree with him more. But this week research from Thames Valley University revealed that teachers are refusing to administer first aid to children because they fear they may be sued. According to the study many schools are adopting “no touching” policies because of fears over compensation claims.
There has actually been no such case brought, but the fear of our litigation culture seems have driven out common sense. So to add to this nonsense a new body called the Independent Safeguarding Authority has decreed that anyone who goes into schools more than once a month must submit to background checks costing £64.
This new rule covers children’s authors, local councillors and even MPs like me. This new body was created in March this year and the new vetting regime will come into affect next year. Surely there must be a common sense alternative to this nanny state provision.
Those of us who have been concerned by the lack of money available to Dorset police for frontline funding were not impressed by the answer to Parliamentary question this week that show that the Home Office had spent over £20 million over the last five years on television advertising. Central government gives Dorset Police the lowest support of any authority in Britain, so I know that many people will be dismayed by this news.
People want more police on the streets, not more PR on television. Last year the Government spent nearly £200 million on advertising; some might call it government propaganda.
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