At a time when our culture seems to be sliding into a strange place where negative consequences of choices individuals make are something the government should prevent at all costs, it is refreshing to hear this Brit with the guts to say that risks are part of life and we are going over the top trying to prevent and regulate all risks.

Personal freedom is under threat from “mindless” attempts to eliminate all element of danger from life, the head of Britain’s accident prevention charity has warned in an admission that health and safety culture has gone too far. Tom Mullarkey, the chief executive of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, insisted that individuals must retain the right to take risks so long as they do not injure others.