1.  A mother in Derbyshire received a letter from her daughter's school telling her to retract her "racist" comments for telling a little girl not to chew on a dark-skinned doll as it was dirty - it had been dropped on the floor and was covered in mud!

 

 

3.  The Mayor in Chepstow asked soldiers of the Rifles regiment to lay down their guns before marching in the Remembrance Day Parade.  Angry veterans said this was ridiculous and the President of the local British Legion said, "The regiment is called the Rifles and rifles are an important part of their uniform....it's like asking the tank regiment to march past on parade without their tanks."

 

4.  Bluewater Shopping Centre has apparently ordered their santas to slim down because they say "Santa Claus is a role model to thousands of children" and that he should be a "responsible icon".

 

 

1.  The Chief Executive of the Royal Society of the Prevention of Accidents said "small-minded bureaucrats" were undermining genuine advances in health and safety in their attempts to wrap children up in cotton wool.  He went on to say, "We need to prepare our children for a complex, dangerous world in which healthy robust activity is more a national need than ever before".

 

2.  Sir Norman Bettison, the head of West Yorkshire Police, said the "elevated and authoritative status" of health and safety often resulted in it being easier for the police to do nothing in a crisis.  He also said, "The armchair perfection of the health and safety Taliban is intent on creating doubt where there was once certainty."