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Health and Safety in the 1970's


paulears

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I remember watching it on Blue Peter when it was first transmitted. It still makes me feel uneasy watching it now. His exploits on the big cranes pale next to this. He was probably terrified a lot of the time, but never really showed it.
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I also remember watching this on Blue Peter when it was originally transmitted. There is a good behind the scenes account of this episode and some of the other memorable Noakes adventures in Biddy Baxter's book about Blue Peter, it really was just how it looked with no safety equipment at all. Bear in mind there was also a cameraman up there with him using both hands on the camera!

 

There was a good documentary on Noakes after his death last year, which includes an interview with the cameraman Terry Doe from the Nelson's Column climb - dodgy dailymotion version of it here

"John Noakes TV Hero"

 

https://www.dailymot...m/video/x6c72u3

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I'm pretty certain they got into serious trouble with his safety on the Cresta Run. Yes attitudes were different back then but it does look very dodgy even for the time - though it is worth recalling just how primitive some of the OB stuff was as well. Remember Westy and Richie Benaud doing 'rain stopped play summaries' under an umbrella on the end of the scaffolding platform for example?
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Precisely so, Brian but not just HASAWA. The Factories Acts and their extension to more workplaces made huge differences as more recently have EU worker's rights law and the continual work on research as we discover asbestosis and the like.

 

I found this trades union article which covers my lifetime (and bit) and even I was shocked that British Railways had exemptions from safety laws after the war. In my day the changes to how the UK works, the loss of heavy industry and HASAWA etc have seen fatalities at work fall to one tenth of what they were. That is brilliant but constant vigilance is needed to keep it that way. Even within the EU fatality levels can be many times higher and places like Turkey just don't bear thinking about.

 

Before people get carried away by the romance of Fred Dibnah; his three wives and the fact that he left a million quid to promote his own heritage foundation and not a penny to his final wife and child thus leaving them homeless might be considered.

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That's not quite true Kerry. He left no money to any of his wives. The estate was left to his children excepting the child he had with his last wife. The two A&P engines were left to his two sons. The money and the proceeds of the real property was left in Trust for his children's majority. His last wife made a claim for a share of the estate under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975. When his A&P tractor was auctioned in 2010 the furore amongst elements of the steam fraternity forced the executors to issue a statement explaining that while Fred left everything to be divided between his five children, and with the tractor specifically gifted to his sons, Jack and Roger, it wasn't that simple. The Estate had had not realised its 'financial expectations', and the tractor had to go to 'finance the final winding up costs of the Estate and fund the settlement of a claim made by Sheila Dibnah under the terms of the Inheritance Act'. The Hertitage Centre was not financed by Fred Dibnah's estate in any way - except for the fact that it receieved the proceeds of the sale of the property to the bloke who set it up. An individual looked upon by most of the preservation movement with shall we say mixed feelings...

 

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Personally I think the reduction of work related injuries and deaths has little to do with HSWA (et al) and all to do with the total loss of significant industry. Steel has gone from Corby an almost gone from Wales. The car industry is a shadow of it's former size, the bicycle industry is gone. We have simply exported all the manufacturing and it's risks and hazards to China, leaving only the import clerks with employment.
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This HSE Report suggests:

 

 

'A comparison of fatal injury numbers between 1974 (when the Health and Safety at Work Act was introduced) and

2016/17, adjusting to allow for the difference in industry coverage of the reporting requirements between these years,

suggests that fatal injury numbers to employees have fallen by around 85% over this period'.

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