The Health & Safety Culture Claims Another Victim

Curlers on the Lake of Menteith, Perthshire earlier this week. Photo: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images.

See, this is the sort of depressing development that makes one lose faith in modern Britain. Hopes had been hight that, for the first time since 1979, conditions would be right for the Grand Match between 2,000 curlers representing the North and South of Scotland to take place on the Lake of Menteith. (It’s not simply a matter of the ice being thick enough; there musn’t be any snow on the lake either.) And indeed the weather has played its part and in a better, saner world the bonspiel would be going ahead.

But that reckons without our health and safety culture. So the Grand Match is off:

The sport’s governing body, the Royal Caledonian Curling Club, said in a statement it was greatly disappointed the match could not go ahead. The club said the decision had been made after “extensive discussions” with the emergency services.