Protecting us from those killer trees.

last updated 8 January 2015

United Kingdom

Simon Jenkins

The government thinks we need to be protected from killer trees, said Simon Jenkins in the London Guardian. The “storm troopers” who staff Britain’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have decided to hold the National Trust and its park service responsible for a random accident. Last year, the wind blew over an old tree in a park, killing an 8-year-old boy. Very sad, of course, but just one of those things, an act of God. Yet the HSE has filed a legal action against the National Trust. “The crime, presumably, is neglectful ownership of any tree that might fall over in a high wind.” This inane lawsuit will be indefensibly expensive, and worse, it is already traumatizing the park service. The National Trust is responsible for maintaining 6 million trees, among which millions of people stroll. “Should they chop down every old tree, or only some, or close all treed areas to the public? Nobody knows.” The HSE refuses to listen to pertinent statistics, such as that the odds of being killed by a tree are 25 million to 1. It insists on imposing “safety fascism” on the country. “It is mad, and nobody seems able to stop it.”