In praise of health and safety at work...

...it's conventional to decry "elf an' safety" as an obsession of bureaucrats and an obstacle to business. There's a grain of truth in that, of course, but it also saves lives, and is saving fewer now as regulation is rolled back and enforcement starved of resources. Currently around fifty people a year die on construction sites in Britain (down from seventy as a result of recession). That's the most dangerous industry; but don't forget the 140 teachers who died in the last ten years as a result of asbestos in school buildings. And globally the deaths and injuries that result from poor working conditions run into millions.

They take International Workers' Memorial Day seriously in North West England, with rallies in Manchester, Liverpool and other towns. Here in Preston the rally in the Flag Market is followed by a procession to lay wreaths at the Lune Street Martyrs' memorial, just outside my flat. These three young men were killed, not in an accident, but deliberately - gunned down for taking strike action in 1843.

That's the Lord Mayor (who opened my conference in September) and the local MP (in woolly hat) at this end of the line.

I blipped the wreaths last year too, but after the event.