Security Gone Mad

This report on BBC made me chuckle...

A north London council has apologised after a woman was refused the loan of a pair of scissors in a library because she "might stab a member of staff".

Lorna Watts, 26, a self-employed dressmaker, was turned down at Holborn Library in central London.

She said: "It's ridiculous - public libraries are supposed to be supportive of small businesses."

A spokeswoman for Camden Council, which runs the library, has apologised and said it would investigate the incident.

Ms Watts, from Islington, north London, said: "I asked why I couldn't borrow a pair of scissors and she said, 'they are sharp, you might stab me'.

"I then asked to borrow a guillotine to cut up my leaflets but she refused again - because she said I could hit her over the head with it!"

She added: "It's absurd - there are plenty of heavy books I could have hit her with if I wanted to.

"I hardly look very threatening - it's really sad she could not make a commonsense judgement."

The businesswoman then visited another three libraries in north London but her request was rejected in each of them.

A spokeswoman for the Health and Safety Executive said there was no policy in place on lending sharp implements.

"People know their own workplaces and must carry out their own risk assessments", she said.

"But we do ask workplaces to take a common sense approach.

"This could be a case of someone misinterpreting the rules."

The world has gone mad. I notice that my local community centre has a "no photos allowed" sign now posted outside. This is absurd. If somebody is going to "case" the place, they can do it with a hidden camera or just be observant and sketch it later. All this sign does is bully innocent people with cameras. It is security gone mad.

This reminds me of the "evil commie terror" of my youth. I was constantly pumped up with the idea that the USSR was champing at the bit to find a way to nuke us. The idea was also pushed that commies were everywhere taking over the government. In reality, the Communist Party was falling apart because of the Khrushchev revelations.

I guess people like being scared. Some go to horror shows to terrify themselves. The more political ones run around spreading scare stories about commies everywhere or terrorists everywhere. Nutty.

I love the bureaucratic answer given:

A Camden Council spokeswoman said: "We are sorry we have not reached our usual high standards. We will investigate fully as soon as possible."

The fact that a total of 4 libraries all refused to lend scissors says to me it is very unlikely that this is simply a slip up in "usual high standards". It sounds like a policy whether formal or informal that has been passed around the staff. Four in a row is pretty long odds for a "slip up".