Yes, you're right, I'm old & cynical. H & S was one of those things over here that started off really well, sensible ideas from educated folks that stopped people cutting corners and putting themselves or others in danger. I even did some myself.
Then it morphed into something where any risk, no matter how slight, becomes a problem. So we end up with schools banning the kids from having slides or snowball fights during winter if they're in school uniform or playing conkers (quaint thing, probably got a wikipedia entry now) to take two famous examples.
Totally off topic now, but by coincidence I'm doing some trivia research for a Centenary in our village next month and found a delightful passage in the 1930s records where the village school suspended class "so that the boys could go outside and round up cows that had broken out of the field". Times (and headmasters) certainly change....
