The Fun Police

I do a lot of walking along the sea walls around here – they are in fact some of the best places to ramble in agricultural Essex. A favoured walk is from St Peter’s Chapel out at the end of the Dengie peninsular, round past Bradwell power station to Bradwell Waterside, there to recuperate with a drink and a bag of nuts in the Green Man, then back to the starting point. In all it’s about 8 miles. While taking this route it’s nice to stray onto the beach for a while, or pause to take in the scenery. A good place for doing the latter is from the tops of pillboxes (WWII defences) incorporated in the sea wall. They provide a perfect platform. Or, at least, they did.
 
Now it seems the nanny state and the fun police have struck again. Can’t be having us plebs walking out on these things. No safety rails you see. Someone might fall off and instead of this sensibly being seen as a valuable contribution to the Darwin Award, it’s to be frowned on. Of course, the council, or whoever put these fences here, is not entirely to blame. In my childhood, should I have fallen from something like this, my father would have added to my injuries with a clip round the ear for being such a dozy prat. In today’s litigious society, that’s not what happens, and woe betide any council that allows the children of generation snowflake to stray near potential harm.

 

More and more I see the future Britain full of strictly controlled and managed parks, where blobby people can motor along the neat paths on their invalid scooters, and where children bounce along looking like the Marshmallow Man in their safetywear, perhaps pausing to inspect the patches of stinging nettles and thistles growing behind Perspex screens.  

2 thoughts on “The Fun Police

  1. Lol – Unfortunately that’s so true – I think its all part of the general dumbing down of society (Caution – Coffee may be hot!) Well – Duhhhhh – keep them stupid to make control easier – Let them watch “Reality” TV instead of living in the real and exploring the world.

    Even the 20mph speed restrictions they are now placing around towns are bad – far better for kids to be fearful of the road and to take care, rather than have no fear and just walk out in front of a car knowing that they wont be hurt.

    This then leads to the current knife crime epidemic where murder is nothing – bit like in cartoons… No reality checks in place.. lol

  2. Well it says private property in the Warnung! sign, so who’s the guy/whatever that owns the property?
    It’s true that litigation is to blame for this sorry state of affairs, so if you own “dangerous” spots you have to make sure all “legally required” precautions are in place lest some psychopath shoves his unloved kid off a pillbox and sues you for a million quid of damages or whatever.
    Not sure the snowflakes are to blame for this, imho it’s more the greed and stupidity of a select few and some lawyers who jump at any opportunity to make money off other people’s misfortune.
    Without the last sentence I’d say just ignore it and climb over the fence, but maybe talking to whoever owns the place before that might be a good Idea.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.