'Great Boris Canal' shipping water from Scotland to England to tackle drought

[IanD]

32 minutes ago, Stroudwater1 said:

oh dear Ian two daily wail references in one thread, there ought to be a Godwins law equivalent for that 🤣😉 incidentally the local school has indeed banned conkers. 

One can’t legislate easily for common sense and one can’t legislate easily to prevent greed (it’s been attempted  for many years but still fails to catch those who mean to make money in possibly dubious or unwise ways)  . Lack of common sense or greed is often the cause of these deaths or disasters . Sometimes it’s just bad luck.
 

Trying to preserve life (or make it “fair”) at any cost by all legislative means is very expensive often  has little science behind it and results in environmental destruction  and other unintended consequences in various  ways. There needs to be more science as there always is a cost per life saved. That’s not in the analysis in most enquiries, parliamentarians thoughts or section 28 coroners reports it’s usually based on emotional costs with a legal response  ie it must never happen again or worse it must never make Media headlines again.  

In medical matters this cost benefit analysis is (sometimes!) done hence many screening procedures aren’t done even though  a life might be saved as the cost in saving it is deemed by scientific analysis not to be worthwhile, or there are unintended consequences  in trying to save life eg radiation from mammograms at earlier ages. 

In environmental terms I suspect we are overvaluing ourselves many times over. In other words human life is expendable after a point but environmental destruction when irreparable is much less so.

 

 

There are very good reasons why the Daily Wail often comes up again and again -- and why I post this diagram again and again... 😉

 

Maybe your local school has banned conkers (proof, or just another unfounded rumour, or not for H&S reasons?) -- I expect you know this is what I was referring to:

 

https://www.ihasco.co.uk/blog/entry/2162/10-ridiculous-health-safety-myths

Edited August 19, 2022 by IanD

[Stroudwater1]

2 hours ago, Jerra said:

I am totally amazed.  Firstly because I haven't seen a child play conkers for over 20 years, but also if they pretend it is for H & S reasons rather than the awful mess the playgrounds used to get into in conker season.

A child got a bruise on their knuckles and they aren’t prepared to take the risk any more ☹️ 

I imagine the mess usually crushes underfoot. It did in my day, though the conker usually is in tiny pieces.
 

 If it needs clearing up then a COSHH assessment would be required (the Aesculin  can be poisonous) followed by disposal in a suitably procured hazardous vegetation bin. 
 

[IanD]

1 hour ago, Stroudwater1 said:

A child got a bruise on their knuckles and they aren’t prepared to take the risk any more ☹️ 

I imagine the mess usually crushes underfoot. It did in my day, though the conker usually is in tiny pieces.
 

 If it needs clearing up then a COSHH assessment would be required (the Aesculin  can be poisonous) followed by disposal in a suitably procured hazardous vegetation bin. 
 

 

Is this actually true (especially the first part), or are you just making it up (like in the elf'n'safety myths link I posted, or Boris Johnson) ?

 

If the school was that risk-averse, they'd also have to ban cricket (risk of being hit in the eye by a ball), football (risk of falling and twisting ankle), running (ditto), playing in the playground (grazed knees), eating lunch in the canteen (knives)...

Edited August 19, 2022 by IanD

[Jerra]

4 hours ago, Stroudwater1 said:

A child got a bruise on their knuckles and they aren’t prepared to take the risk any more ☹️ 

I imagine the mess usually crushes underfoot. It did in my day, though the conker usually is in tiny pieces.

When conkers were popular the playground at the school I worked in was almost half an inch deep all over in conker pieces being tarmac the caretakers had a big job on.

4 hours ago, Stroudwater1 said:

 

 

 

 If it needs clearing up then a COSHH assessment would be required (the Aesculin  can be poisonous) followed by disposal in a suitably procured hazardous vegetation bin. 
 

It did need clearing up.

Edited August 19, 2022 by Jerra

[oboat]

On 17/08/2022 at 10:18, Tony Brooks said:

No Alan. The other one is in the Politics section so many will not have seen it.

 

I would suspect this is just another Straw Man, set up to kick Boris and by the look of some of the comments its working well.
This Ofwat water transfer project is not new and is in mid process, parts have passed or are about to pass through Gate Two in the South.

In terms of big projects related to navigation, in the South East the area of greatest concern, two are worth looking out for.
The revival of the 1960's Wash Tidal Barrier on environmental grounds, something of an about turn.
It is also something we have global warming to thank for.
The Wash Environmental Barrier would run from Hunstanton to Gibraltar Point with a potential extension past Skegness.
This would be larger than the Cardiff Day Barrier but smaller than the French & Dutch estuarine barriers. It would also re-perpose the Great Ouse Washlands

The other is the proposed Spalding Paternoster. 
The Spalding Paternoster is a multifunction lift project transferring Trent and Witham water down to the Great Ouse via the Glen, Welland and Nene (it could also involve the remains of the Stamford canal in a very minor way).