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Things We Didn’t Have in the 1970s

Part One

Health and Safety

Many people decry the nanny state and how health and safety regulation has constricted people’s lives. To give but one example, I could safely and healthily drink a cup of hot coffee without a lid on the cup but nowadays, takeaway coffee must be served in a cup with a lid on. I once protested that I’d be fine. The lady serving looked at me.

‘Well you say that, but what if you pour the coffee all down your face?’

‘Then I’m a fucking idiot,’ I said. ‘And I deserve a burnt face.’

She stared at me.

‘More than that,’ I continued, ‘I resent the inference that I might.’

I feel like I was walking towards the coffee shop and they were looking at me and whispering to each other, ‘Get the lids out. This bloke will hurt himself.’ She was unbending. I removed the lid as soon as I left the shop, like the maverick that I am.

In the 1970s, we had both health and safety but they weren’t considered a joint enterprise. Consequently, the most innocent of activities involved a degree of danger. Children’s playgrounds were built almost entirely on concrete. If you came off the swings and landed on your head and got brain damage, it was seen as natural selection. That was how we weeded out the stupid people.