Chairman’s Chit Chat February 2026
Are we becoming a nanny state? Or, in the light of recent events, have we already become one?
The week of cold weather in January prompted a flurry of Met Office, Government and NHS yellow and amber alerts. According to these august bodies we were careering towards weather Armageddon.
Let’s keep a sense of perspective – we were not heading for a cataclysmic disaster.
It was January and January is in winter.
The lowest temperature we had in York was -6 degrees.
Jessie has a cousin in Alberta, Canada, and, according to his November letter, it was already down to -20 but life was going on as normal.
In winter, do we really need to be told in doom-laden tones to keep warm and not to make unnecessary journeys?
All this is simply common sense.
It seems we have to be warned about almost everything. It is as though ‘they’ believe we are incapable of thinking or making decisions for ourselves.
When you buy a takeout cup of coffee from Costa (an abbreviation for “Cost a Fortune), the cup warns us that the “contents may be hot.”
After splashing out a week’s wages, I think most of us would complain if the contents were cold
(P.S. other coffee shops are available).
I cannot remember when the human race lost the ability to detect whether or not food was fit and safe to eat.
But apparently we have, because these days we have to be told. Almost all packaged foods come with either a ‘Best Before’ date or a ‘Use/Eat By’ date.
How many of us, I wonder, look at a slice of ham covered in an iridescent green mould and think “my word that looks tasty and wholesome.”
If it is still ‘in date’, then I presume that would be anyone who grew up from when these instructions became commonplace.
If you visit the toilets in establishments such as restaurants or garden centres, stuck on the mirror behind the hot water tap is invariably the dire message “Warning – water may be hot.” 
What does the general public expect to flow out of a hot water tap – milk and honey?
It is a dangerous world out there. Mind how you go.
