And the Fat Kid/Bookworm Alliance draws one step closer to achieving its long-sought coup d’état.

To be fair, in Australia, like the toilet flushes, cartwheels are done in the opposite direction, compared with the US. More dangerous. If you ever meet an Australian in America, ask them to do a cartwheel. Have your camera ready, because it's freaking hilarious. Should work with New Zealanders as well.

I feel less lonely now... I thought only the US was this lame.

All this risk malarkey is just so much bullshit.

I have a friend, Lance, who's been involved with the Scout Movement all his life. He said that the days when the Scout Masters could decide on a Thursday night to take a group of boys camping that weekend are long gone, because of health & safety, risk assessment, required permissions, etc.

Even on organised camping trips, he told me, for every activity there has to be a signed permission from a parent or guardian for each boy, where they confirm they've read the risk assessment and are happy for their boy to do the activity. But sometimes Lance said that he has to say to a scout "I'm sorry, I know you really want to do this activity, but your parents haven't given permission" and then that boy has to stay behind at camp (supervised, of course, in case he might, well, get hurt or something) while the others go off and do the canoeing, or climbing or whatever.

In the UK some schools no longer organise trips themselves but contract them out to specialist companies, precisely because of the risk factor and the litigation that might follow.

Before reading the article, I assumed this was something to do with protecting little girls from accidentally flashing paedos.

Am I sick, or is it just society?

I remember when I was a kid I got a rope burn round my neck from a skipping game during playtime. I was about 8 or 9 at the time. It looked as if someone had tried to hang me, you could see all the weave of the rope and everything.

I can only guess at how parents today would perceive such a play-related injury, but I suspect trying to hold the school responsible would figure in it somewhere.

That should probably read "To be fair, in Australia, cartwheels, like the toilet flushes..."

I saw this on the news last night and was (sadly) unsurprised. The whole world has gone mad with this stupid shit. At least the minister for education had the sense to call it "total nonsense" when questioned.

Essexjan, scouts is not just for boys any more, btw. My daughters' scoutmaster fortunately takes a much more realistic approach to things and is backed up (I believe) by every parent involved. I hope that doesn't come back to bite them one day.

To be fair: Queensland.