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[Wittsend]

Seat belts came in before Health & Safety was invented, compulsory wearing came in after H&S.
Human Rights came along after seat belts - the start of the slippery slope to nannyism

I suppose you have to weigh up the cost of an accident against Darwinism.

[rustynuts]

Seat belts came in before Health & Safety was invented

Not sure that I agree with that. The foundation of current H&S legislation is the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, but the origins of that were from the Factories Act of 1948 and even earlier acts such as the Coal Mines Regulation Act of 1872.

[Genem]

Sorry Alan, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly at its third session on 10 December 1948.... its a Series 1.

....and it was written in large part by British lawyers.

[rustynuts]

Heading way OT...The old Norse sentence of "Outlaw" meant that the individual was outside the protection of the Law, any one could do as they wished to the person so sentenced. They were not people to be feared, they were in fear themselves, generally had to flee, go hide somewhere from a population of grumpy and armed neighbours... In current terms, the removal of all Human Rights permanently or for a period of X years.

See "Erik the Red" and the settlement of Greenland.  "Erik had to flee Norway, for he had committed Man-Slaughter..."   

     

I like the sound of that. Can we please outlaw:
     
          People who clutter up supermarkets by shopping in groups despite signs saying that we should do so individually.
          Etc
          Etc

[Larry S.]

I like the sound of that. Can we please outlaw:
     
          People who clutter up supermarkets by shopping in groups despite signs saying that we should do so individually.
          Etc
          Etc

You have rules telling you how to shop?!?!       

[w3526602]

Hi,

Something in my memory about some sort of chair, that had a back-rest (squab?) that could be hinged forward,  so the the person sitting in it faced the other way. (Obviously, for a car, it would need to lock in both settings. My windscreen is required to give a clear view to the front ... is that the same cleat view as my mirrors are required to give?

602

Er ... can anyone see where this is going (seat belt wise)? And should I get my coat?

[andyjb]

You have rules telling you how to shop?!?!       

It's to help stop the spread of Covid-19.

[Clifford Pope]

an honourable member in the 1950s seriously suggesting that vehicles should turn off their headlights when approaching each other, lest the drivers be dazzled ..

The law for a long time required that dipping the lights extinguished the offside headlight and dipped the nearside. This was usually achieved by pivotting the reflector, activated by an electromagnet.
When I bought my 1947 Triumph Roadster in 1966 it still had this mechanism, and shortly afterwards the double-dipping law was extended retrospectively to include all vehicles, including those originally only have single-dipping. At about the same time the requirement for two rear lights was also similarly retro-activated.
i believe these, and the windscreen washer requirement, are the only examples of such retrospective law-changing.
I recall a lively debate in the Roadster Club as to how to modify our vehicles. The silliest suggestion was to acquire a second pivotting reflector to replace the fixed one on the offside too - the drawback was that the mechanism, like that operating trafficators, was notoriously prone to sticking, and often only activated after passing over the next rut in the road. Two such headlights would not necessarily have dipped at the same time.

When I started driving in 1966 it was still considered gentlemanly to extinguish headlights when stopping behind another vehicle in a queue, or when passing pedestrians. In those days there were still two classes of motorist, the older ones having been driving before the war. The younger brasher post-war drivers threw aside all such considerations of politeness, so we now have today's universal free-for-all.

[Manxcat]

Heading way OT...The old Norse sentence of "Outlaw" meant that the individual was outside the protection of the Law, any one could do as they wished to the person so sentenced. They were not people to be feared, they were in fear themselves, generally had to flee, go hide somewhere from a population of grumpy and armed neighbours... In current terms, the removal of all Human Rights permanently or for a period of X years.

See "Erik the Red" and the settlement of Greenland.  "Erik had to flee Norway, for he had committed Man-Slaughter..."   
   

The sentence of Outlaw is still in the statutes of a few of the former Viking kingdoms.

[Clifford Pope]

"The outlaws" is now a semi-jocular reference to the family of someone's partner, not married, in comparison with the traditional "inlaws" saddled on the married.  :)

Also the gang in the "Just William" stories.

[Genem]

You have rules telling you how to shop?!?!       

Advice to shop as an individual rather than a couple/family dragging round the shop. Sensible suggestion to limit number in close proximity ?

I got my 1st jag this morning. Astra Zeneca. The GP practice had taken over the Kirk ( church ) Hall in the centre of town, very efficient set-up - very similar to the Flu jag campaign from October. Walk in the door at my allotted time, asked, by name, to sanitise my hands, asked questions about health status, escorted into the main Hall, met by vaccinator, questions confirmed, advised of possible side-effects, injected, handed some blurb to read and a card with my date for the next jag, out the side door and back in the car... 3 minutes after I left it.
They plan to do 400 people today.

[Alan Drover]

I heard on Radio Solent this morning that the Scots call all vaccinations "jags" not "jabs" as you have done Genem, so I know it's not a spell checker error.

[diffwhine]

I was wondering what he was on about...! I thought it had something to do with John Prescott...

Impressed that you can get Radio Solent up in the north of the county. I don't think I can get it here on the borders.

[Genem]

I heard on Radio Solent this morning that the Scots call all vaccinations "jags" not "jabs" as you have done Genem, so I know it's not a spell checker error.

Obviously your Health Service uses blunter needles ?   

[Alan Drover]

DAB and FM here diffwhine.