Friday 3 August 2007

Health And Safety: A mental poison spreads.

I am sure many have seen the appalling decision to convict a headmaster of a school at which a child died jumping down steps and various posts by others in response.

While it is routinely absurd that the H&S ricebowlers were all over this, it is no surprise as that is their function, just as a cockroach will walk across your freshly cut sandwich.

The real worry here is that this ever made it to court. Further, that a jury would convict.

Four layers of failure have occurred.

Parents. H&S. CPS. Jury.

The child was just being a child and Mr Porter was not to blame in any way.

The fact that the parents felt "relief and satisfaction" over this is disgusting, even taking into account the distortions of grief. They said that the Headmaster "had a duty of care". Uttering that phrase should bring a 6 month supervision order for diminished responsibility.

The parents should never have brought this case. Period.

The Health and Safety cockroaches are just being cockroaches. They need to be exterminated just for being what they are. There is no point discussing this vermin further.

The CPS should have seriously considered not proceeding. Why is this kind of prosecution in the public good? We are beset with infantilising, blame-shifting compensation hounds and the CPS irresponsibly feeds the beast.

The Jury should hang its head in shame, though I suspect Blair, Cherie and all the authoritarian infantilizers out there would consider this a result for their poisonous "educational" and media apparatus which seems to be churning out people with no critical reasoning or common sense.

What is amazing is that the child took so long to die. Could it actually be that the healthcare given was not adequate or well executed? Did anyone not consider that the accident was not in itself grave or a result of any fault? The hospital even said the injury was "relatively minor".

I am struggling to find any angle in this case that has not been obfusticated by some barking-mad piece of blame-shifting or weasel words to irrationally spoon the responsibility to the School. The kid fell. He died in hospital. The steps had no hidden dangers. Could it be a pet hate of non-State education? Who knows.

The parents are not content with destroying this man once, they want a second pound of flesh, it seems, as part of a further private prosecution. "Scumbags" hardly expresses the depth of my contempt for these people, even taking into account the effects of grief.

The father said: "he’s been found guilty today but in my eyes he’s been guilty thousands of times".

Hate will eat you up. For sure.

4 comments:

Mark Wadsworth said...

That is a bloody good point.

Surely the H&S chaps are supposed to go round schools and check that the fire doors aren't blocked etc. every now and then.

Where the f*** were they for all these years that the offending steps were there? Yes, there is such a thing as particularly dangerous steps - irregular heights and widths, no handrail, slippery or wobbly stones, overhanging branches etc.

Didn't Mr Porter get the H&S people to sign off every year or two that things were in order? Doesn't that put him in the clear?

CFD Ed said...

Did the parents see these clearly deadly stairs? Surely they were wilfully negligent in exposing their child to such danger.

This looks like a case for social services. Call a case conference?

Do they have any more children? If so surely they should be taken into state care immediately and sent to foster care. Should the irresponsible parents attempt to have any more children they should be monitored and taken into care at birth.

Henry North London 2.0 said...

Oh ffs That is just so stupid

CFD Ed said...

Sense of humour failure?