Akin to the phrases :I'm not racist, but" and "It's only a bit of banter", the adage "health and safety gone mad" is the linguistic equivalent of a Bernard Manning video; lazy, ill-informed and inflammatory.
I heard it again recently while engaging in small talk with a woman near the Pump Rooms in my hometown of Harrogate. The council had taken EU advice to stop visitors trying the sulphur waters - once a Victorian health tonic - so the woman uttered the offending remark. She must have noticed my slight grimace, as she said, 'sorry, you don't work in health and safety, do you?' Of course, what health and safety gone madders, like casual racists, don't seem to realise, is that even people who don't identify themselves in the group being slated can disagree with such remarks.
Anyway, since then the water has been found to contain two and a half times the permitted level of arsenic. Such findings, to me, rather negate her intimation that the 'Brussels fun police' have ruined our heritage.
At a time when Total's Elgin platform continues to burn as the result of a gas leak and asbestos is confirmed as the single greatest cause of work related deaths in the UK, I wonder why some people see health and safety considerations as a Bad Thing. Health & Safety Executive guidelines help councils and businesses ensure they're operating safely.
Before David Cameron came into power he spoke to the Daily Mail about a wide-spread 'neurosis' and resultant 'blame culture'... 'rules and regulations and petty bureaucracy that are mucking up people's lives'. Earlier this year he helpfully coined the term 'health and safety monster'.
There's no doubt that citizens have become more aware of their rights. The fact that some seem to think this awareness is wrong, is very worrying to me. If I have an accident as a result of someone else's negligence that stops me working, I'm reassured that I have the opportunity to make a compensation claim against their insurers so that I don't become homeless as a result. I am also confident that were someone to make a claim against a business I owned, and the business was not to blame, that the court would look at the evidence and rule as such. Or vice versa, which is a nice, democratic and safe process, isn't it?
As it is, Harrogate council has decided to reopen the sulphur tap on the side of the Pump Room (though the inside tap will remain closed) with a 'Not Fit for Drinking' sign next to it. I wonder if those people who leapt to shout 'health and safety gone mad' will see the reopening as a victory, or whether they'll see the warning sign as another bit of 'petty bureaucracy'. Or perhaps, just a thought, they'll be a little disappointed that they can no longer complain that the council have stopped them willingly drinking contaminated water. Whatever happens, I do hope to see the woman I engaged in small talk with at the tap again.