Quote Originally Posted by the sniper View Post
If you appreciate how lost British rallying is, it came as no surprise to see Iain Campbell dumbfounded on Twitter by the idea that we weren't all onboard with the 'virtual chicanes' idea... No doubt in the UK we'll eventually see stage rallying smothered further by this innovation, ensuring the 70mph average speed is strictly maintained, areas where spectators might accumulate neutralised, and any corner that might be considered 'dangerous' (with an ever broadening definition as the years go on) by ever fearful organisers diluted.

Luckily in the UK the powers that be don't need to worry about what cars cruising through reduced-speed zones looks like from the outside, as there are very few spectators left on most rallies... The organisers/MSA consider that to be a job well done.
Not trying to be an arse about it but in my business, the British have always had a thing for safety on paper rather than safety in reality.

I work on a Tanker so safety is of the essence. We were loading on a non disclosed location in western UK and the stacks of papers we had to sign and the amount of checklists we had to do was insane (as it always is in the UK). Then as soon as we started loading, the pipe supplying us burst a hole and they had to stop. We were grounded there for quite a while they fixed the issue and we had plenty of time watching how things looked like at the terminal. It was run down to a point you wouldn't believe. Exposed bare wires and connections in an explosion classed environment, steam leaks everywhere, so much rust on pipes and structures, holes in the walls of some buildings, hand rails and fences missing etc etc.

We also loaded or discharged (don't remember) at another UK terminal when our chief officer was on the quay (why is that pronounced "key" btw?) to inspect the draught marks on the side of the ship when he fell through (!) the quay which broke underneath him and into some kind of drain tank they had built into the dock. Luckily he caught himself with his arms or he would have fallen into the oily tank itself. We wrote a big angry report (British love reports) about it and we got a reply (as well as a safety issue) stating it was forbidden to access the quay. Nothing was done about the obvious safety hazard. "now we have a piece of paper saying it's safe so therefor it is safe".

Many years we came back there and nothing had been done. Eventually when we came back, they had put some yellow plastic chain around the hole, presumably after someone fell in and died. The hole was still there and still not fixed.

This is British safety for you. On paper it looks great, in reality, not so much.