Bloom attacks health and safety measures

Tuesday, 18th May 2010

Every family in the country should welcome health inspectors round to check that their home is safe for their children to live in, according to guidance released yesterday by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

Professor Mike Kelly, director of NICE’s Centre for Public Health Excellence, says the state has a duty to prevent children from hurting themselves. “Our aim is not to promote a nanny state where children can’t have fun or lead normal lives, but there is an important balance to be struck between good and bad risks,” he said.

NICE recommends PCTs should take responsibility for making checks on so-called domestic hazards such as windows, stairs, taps, heaters and cupboards.

However, UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom described the recommendations as “utter nonsense dreamed up by moronic quangoland bureaucrats”.

He said: “This just show that the government may chop and change, but thanks to Britain’s mountain of quangos the nanny state remains the same.

“It highlights the institutionalised bureaucracy that cripples government from Whitehall to the town hall. Bureaucrats creating work and jobs for more bureaucrats.”

“Goodness knows what madness like this would cost the taxpayer. I thought we were supposed to be making public spending cuts, not recommending that overzealous inspectors should invade people’s homes and cover everything with cotton wool.”