Littlejohn responds to Rob

17 March 2010

Daily Mail columnist Richard Littlejohn has responded to comments made by IOSH chief executive Rob Strange OBE in an article he’d written for the Independent this week.

Under the headline, ‘Badly timed attack’, Littlejohn writes:

“The chief executive of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health has accused me of making up stories about elf'n'safety.

Never mind that he can point to only one example, a story which came not from my imagination, but from the Rotary Club of Stranraer, which was told that it would have to employ a lifeguard and a 'trained outdoor specialist' if it intended to use a footpath alongside Loch Ryan.

He also, rather unfortunately, chose the day on which we learned that the traditional cheese-rolling contest in Gloucestershire had been cancelled this year on grounds of elf'n'safety.

Sometimes, even I can't make it up.”

The Cooper’s Hill cheese rolling contest was cancelled this year due to police and local authority fears for public safety. This was a clear case of an event becoming so popular that it had outgrown its traditional location, bringing major concerns over traffic, parking, damage to property and crowd safety. The event organisers themselves pointed out the spectacle was attracting crowds three times the capacity of the site.

As for the story regarding the footpath alongside Loch Ryan, IOSH understood from the local council that the Rotary Club was unhappy with the way the Mail reported the story, saying the council had been very supportive regarding the path.

Reading the response, Rob said:

“When Mr Littlejohn complains that I can only point to one example of him ‘making up stories’, it makes me wonder ‘isn’t one enough?’

“My article was focused on a wider issue of media myth making about health and safety, with the Littlejohn column being just one example of where this occurs.”