Everyone is equal before the law.
Which must come as a surprise to Nicholas "Fatty" Soames, who has just had his collar felt for driving a quad bike on the roads without insurance or crash helmets, and with children sitting unrestrained in the trailer he was towing.
Nicholas Soames, the grandson of Winston Churchill, is a famous gastronome and bon viveur, and has been unfairly compared to Mr Creosote.
Having risen with little trace, a former girlfriend once famously stated that "Making love with Nick was like have a double wardrobe fall on top of you with the key still in the lock."
Nicholas Soames, the grandson of Winston Churchill, is a famous gastronome and bon viveur, and has been unfairly compared to Mr Creosote.
Having risen with little trace, a former girlfriend once famously stated that "Making love with Nick was like have a double wardrobe fall on top of you with the key still in the lock."
12 comments:
Frankly the only time I got to ride in the back of trailer, urestrained, was one of my happy memories from childhood!!
Children are far too molly-coddled these days - no wonder they don't understand the concept of safety - I would rather have my child ride in the back of a trailer like that every day than have them grow up not knowing that experience and break their hip one day trying to do it as an adult!
Anon 12:37
So it's Ok to break the law and put children at risk so long as it provides a worthwhile! childhood experience?
Angus,
Much as I understand your hatred of all things Tory its a bit close to home to be bad mouthing folk for their weight!
captain swing
I am mearly pointing out that children are being put at MORE risk by not being allowed to find out what is and is not dangerous. Children are not being allowed to experience danger in their childhoods - and therefore being MORE dangerous in their teens nad early adult life. Children MUST experience danger at some point in their lives to understand what the limits of safety are - they cannot now do this - because EVERYTHING is dangerous (that is, has a certain risk factor involved) but adults will continue to put stairs in homes and kitchens on their houses (although that is where the majority of accident happen in the home!) theoretically our ancestors who lived outside had more safety -because they did not have homes! You will note i didn't say that there is no danger in this activity, simply that there is less than most - except the danger that your child grow up tory (that it has to be admitted is quite a risk!)
loved the interpretation that the children weren't looking back simply to dispise the journalists -a very low form of life it must be admitted! LS
Anon 12:28
I don't actually disagree with your main points about Children being allowed to experience and take risks RoSpa and the link to Laser give plenty of good guidance on children learning about risk. My main problem, apart from Mr Soames being a Tory, is that this is an adult who should know better, not only breaking the law, but involving children in a risky activity also.
In my youth I got up to all sorts of things, trying to make fireworks, trying to blow things up, climbing and falling out of trees, and yes riding on tractor trailers, when allowed by the adults. We even used to cycle up behind tractors and trailer so that we could get a tow, and yes this was on public roads.
But the world was a different place then, there was a different attitude to such behaviour, if you did something wrong in view of the local Bobby you got a clip around the ear, and if you were daft enough to mention that at home you probably got another from your Dad. You learnt very quickly what was acceptable and what was not. Now your child has been given rights and I don't want to debate the rights (no pun intended)and wrongs of that, and as result they are as likely to sue for being allowed to injure themselves as not. This has understandable made adults very nervous when it comes to dealing with children and risk.
The problem of allowing children to experience risk is a very complex one. On the one hand you want to protect your child from harm, as an adult I now know the risks I took and in some ways was very lucky to survive unscathed, but I would also be very unhappy for a child of mine to get up to the same risky things that I did.
I think that children should be allowed to find out about things for themselves but children playing with children experiencing things is one thing adults actively encouraging risk as Mr Soames did is another.
I’m sure we don’t need reminding of what can happen when you mix adults, children and Quad bikes
Unbelievable that this is being debated on a blog from the Western Isles. When you see some of the trailers full of peats getting carted home, and the risks many a crofter takes with their tractors then its a bit rich to attack Fatty Soames for doing something that is common-place in the country,
Tell me how is what CAN result any more dangerous than say allowing a child to cycle in a city? - This comment is aimed at captain swing!
Anon 12:02 Yet another Anon
And your point is? Oh I can't wait for a response so I'll anticipate it.
Cycling, yes even children on bikes, can and are quite legally entitled to pursue this activity on the road. Most Quad Bikes and especially those designed for children are not legally entitled to use the road.
Over the years much has been made of safety and cycling, cycling proficiency at school, introduction of helmets etc are high profile concepts and I'm sure you won’t find many children who cycle without a helmet or don't know why they should need to wear one. Parents who allow their children to cycle on the road will almost certainly be confident that their child has the necessary road craft and safety equipment before allowing them to do so. Parents may of course accompany their offspring on bikes as part of a family experience.
Quad bikes because they cannot be legally used on the road, and certainly not by children, does then the concept of safety required for a cycle transfer in the mind of a child, or an adult for that matter, when it comes to quad bikes. At the moment it looks as if it doesn't.
A Driver one should always expect the unexpected. You get used to all sorts of vehicles using the road, some slow, some fast, well driven, badly driven all sorts, but the one thing they all have in common is that 99% have had some training, or guidance may be (in the case of child cyclists) and you as a driver can have a certain degree of confidence in what might happen in any given situation. Untrained road users on powerful machines is a recipe for disaster, especially when dad is there to show off to.
Cycles, only as powerful as the legs that push the pedals lets say for a child 10- 12 mph. Quad bike 40mph, may be more may be less, and in the hand of a child on the public highway, especially if it is a country lane, it would be safer if they were on the M9 at least all the traffic goes in the same direction.
No the more I think about it the more I feel that adults who either know that, or encourage their children to go out on the road on Quad Bikes, should be taken out and shot.
Just seen the news,
So Cameron has been caught going through a red light and going up a one way street the wrong way on his bike.
What is it about Tories that they don't have to abide by the same set of rules that the rest of us do?
Do they have special lessons at their Public schools that we don't get at State Schools? Do these lessons go along the lines of you now all those silly little rules that keep the great unwashed masses in their place, that your Pater makes in that big place in London, well don't worry they don't apply to you?
captain Swing: you are obviously not a cyclist that is the end of the matter as far as i am concerned
anon 12:28
I have no idea why you think I'm not a cyclist, but I am, and have been to over 50 years.
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