Do As I Do
One politician has just turned into a human being. Norman Baker has shown that he is normal.
Everyone knows that whenever a politician spouts some diktat it is always on the basis of “do as I say not as I do”. That’s why politicians always make up laws and rules which the ordinary person has to follow, but they themselves will ignore. Witness Harriet Harman ignoring the law with impunity after leaving the scene of an accident.
So it’s surprising when a politician says that people should do as they wish and not as the authorities and those with vested interests say so. Norman Baker has said that even the rules are that you should wear a helmet when cycling it’s your own choice as to whether not or actually do so. He’s not telling us what to do, he’s telling us what we ought to do but it’s up to us to make that decision.
For instance when cycling on the road a helmet probably makes very little difference when you’ve been squashed by an HGV. But a helmet makes a huge a difference if you are downhill mountain biking. In the later everyone will wear a helmet, but in the former many will not.
I’m reminded of a scene I saw on a Discovery channel documentary when someone was asked why they weren’t wearing a hard hat within a factory where big heavy machinery was in use. The guy just pointed up at the 50 tonne block of steel above his head and said “It wouldn’t make much difference under that”.
Now every parent knows the maxim too. Usually parents use it when they are caught out by their child and can’t come up with a reasonable explanation quickly enough about why they are breaking their own rules.
The maxim does have its uses. Many a time children don’t fully understand something and until they do they are better of following their parent’s rules even though their parent might not follow it. For instance children should be told to only cross the road at crossing whilst adults will cross the road at any point – though some adults are probably better off acting like children but that’s their problem not mine.
But all politicians act like the whole population is made up of children. They tell us all to do as we are told even though we are all adults and have brains and can think for ourselves. It doesn’t matter if they are Labour or Conservative, they are still authoritarian. It’s part of the psyche of a politician to think they know best.
SBML
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April 12, 2011 at 00:03 -
Good for Norman. I’m actually proud of my MP for once…
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April 12, 2011 at 10:03 -
Steady on, please consider his form as a serial self-promoter, who has championed a number of seriously anti libertarian measures.
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April 12, 2011 at 00:47 -
A pity we can’t use that as a clue stick and beat all the others with it.
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April 12, 2011 at 00:52 -
By the time I was a teenager any attempt by my mother to use “Don’t do as I do…” was swiftly met with the re-joiner “Practice what you preach”. She eventually got the message .
As for the wearing of a helmet, I usually forgo mine when I’m just out and about on the bike but if I know I’m going to be on a fast road (anywhere where the traffic is going to be going double my 20-ish mph top speed on the flat) I’ll wear one on the off chance it’ll do some good if some driver finally manages to take me out.
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April 12, 2011 at 00:59 -
Good on Norman B -not a bad geezer for a LibDem (Mad Aunt Polly being one of his constituents) – when it comes to cycling helmets, why?: If you come off your bike, the bits most likely to be hurt are: elbows (six stitches last year), shoulders, knees, ribs, hips, so far no head injuries.
Until some 20 years ago, no-one wore a cycle helmet, apart , perhaps, from Tour de France riders and similar athletes.
Come to think of it, few people wore hi viz clothing either, even if they were doing something vaguely official in a public place. What an irresponsible lot we were!
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April 12, 2011 at 08:53 -
For the same reason hard hats are worn on horseback.
The head is one of the most vulnerable parts of the body to impact, so wearing something that may help absorb impact damage on striking an object or the ground is worth doing, isn’t it?
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April 12, 2011 at 11:04 -
Spinal protectors reduce rider injuries too. Only wearing a hard hat gives false confidence and many horse riders have suffered broken backs (but with undamaged heads). Does this mean bicyclists should (be forced to) wear them too?
When I was young, if you fell out of a tree, you broke something. No-one banned climbing trees back then. An element of danger is necessary for children to grow up understanding these limitations – such appreciation is learned and is not the business of the state.
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April 12, 2011 at 04:31 -
“What an irresponsible lot we were”
Not really, we just got on with things without being hassled by do-gooders.
Still do, only more so!
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April 12, 2011 at 06:50 -
Rules are made for the guidance of the wise and the restriction of fools. Laws are made by the corrupt, for the corrupt.
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April 12, 2011 at 09:27 -
Laws are made by those who have nothing else to do and need some employment!
We have become a nanny state where everything either must be legislated for or political statements adhered to…..witness John Major and the family…..Edwina Curry fit in there somewhere?-
April 12, 2011 at 09:57 -
Go back thirty years or so and many industrial practices would make your hair stand on end, as would the annual accident statistics. Much the same on the roads, and in other walks of life. Health and Safety legislation was long overdue, and it’s improved many people’s lives immensely by avoiding their being killed at work. As with any such legislation, there are the fools who misinterpet and take things too far, and we’ve had a bit too much of that over the last few years. Applying common sense usually results in a sensible solution.
By the way, what has John Major got to do with cycle helmets?
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April 12, 2011 at 10:18 -
Would that applied common sense were so simple. Imagine I’m a teacher taking a class on an adventure day – nothing fancy, just one of these woodland adventure trail things. I know the trail and I know the class – Jim Bright will walk it, but Joe Doze is going to need some help & encouragement. I do the quick risk assessment in my head & off we go. Then Jim Bright slips & falls, breaking his ankle. It happens. So then I’m in dead lumber with the school governors, his parents, HSE, county council et al, because I didn’t document the risk assessment, going through all the points in a 4-page process, and getting a colleague, or the head, to sign it off. It’s the paperwork that matters, not the actual risk assessment.
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April 12, 2011 at 11:08 -
Yes and no. The risk assessment for a school day out should really be a one-page thing, and once done would cover pretty well every school day out for several years. The risk assessment for commissioning a new chemical plant would be a somewhat different matter.
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April 12, 2011 at 12:04 -
Diddly squat!
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April 12, 2011 at 12:12 -
The perceived ‘risk’ was what prevented the emergency services from saving a man drowning in 3′ of water recently; the excuse was they hadn’t had the appropriate training.
Risk in an industrial situation is entirely an different proposition from the risk levels encountered by the majority of the population.
HSE has been good for some things but too much anti-litigation fear has driven much of the process. -
April 12, 2011 at 13:31 -
In other words, a lack of applied common sense – and that comment applies to both the above points.
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April 12, 2011 at 07:22 -
He’s obviously stopped taking his medicine. Surely he should realise that we’re not to be trusted and need to be checked and monitored by state officials at all times for our own benefit.
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April 12, 2011 at 09:49 -
Ah – a rare outbreak of common sense. Don’t worry, it propably won’t last; but it would be nice if it did.
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April 12, 2011 at 11:36 -
Surely, “Do as I say, not as I do” is exactly what he’s doing. Or have I missed something? As the minister for cycling his department’s giving out advice that you should be wearing a helmet, yet the minister responsible for this doesn’t like it so he doesn’t do it.
I like the quote from the spokesman at brake:
“Ministers should practise what they preach and when a minister directly responsible for cycling safety refuses to wear a cycle helmet, we then have to look at their suitability for the role,”
THEY have to look at ministers’ suitability? Who put them in charge of anything?
The thing here is you’ve got two fascist tits warring against eachother in their own self interest. Just remember, Norman Baker is a politician (one of many, I agree) who has said he wants to restrict the sales of 4×4 vehicles to people who live in the country so that they’re not used as a status symbol by people who live in the suburbs.
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April 12, 2011 at 11:48 -
After watching Goldfinger I wear an Oddjob’s Hat. You can easily dispense summary justice to pedestrians but with car drivers, unless their window is down, you are limited to just slicing their aerial off.
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April 12, 2011 at 17:20 -
… “the rules are that you should wear a helmet”…
Really?
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