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PC ban on throwing sweets to children at panto
Last updated at 08:22am on 12.12.06
Sweet projectiles: bureaucrats are trashing the practice of throwing boiled sweets to children at pantomimes for fear someone will get hurt
Throwing bonbons and boiled sweets into the audience has been a tradition of the festive pantomime for many decades.
But bureaucrats are set to stamp out the tradition because they claim boiled sweets could injure a member of the audience.
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Instead organisers of one pantomime have been told they must go down into the crowd and hand out the sweets.
It is just the latest example of health and safety fears and political correctness stamping out some of our oldest Christmas traditions.
Since the early 20th century pantomime characters - usually the Dame - have thrown sweets to children in the audience as a Christmas treat.
The ruling was made by a committee for the Preston Drama Club in Lancashire which fears an injury could spark a compensation claim.
The club, which attracts huge numbers of children and adults to its performances each year, is staging Sleeping Beauty at Preston Playhouse this season.
But committee members believe it would be far too costly to insure against a member of the audience losing an eye or sustaining another injury.
So rather than fork out for the costly insurance they have banned the tradition of throwing sweets to the children instead.
Some members of the group have branded the move as "ridiculous" and say health and safety restrictions are killing tradition in Britain.
Don Stephenson, president of Preston Drama Club, said: "There are so many rules and regulations now we were not really surprised because this is just another one.
"We have had so many of these things about what you can and can't do. They are only sweets, they wouldn't hurt anybody."
Another member said: "It was felt that insuring against an injury - say someone losing an eye - in a freak accident would cost too much money.
"We're only a small outfit and while the chance of such an injury occurring is remote, to say the least, it is a risk we cannot take. I do lament the death of traditional practices but people are increasingly litigious and only to ready to turn to the courts and so that is the way it is."
A final decision will be taken after January 6 by the club at the close of the Sleeping Beauty production on January 6.
The ruling is the latest in a long line of politically correct rulings that aim to wreck the experience of Christmas.
One school which took turkey off the Christmas menu to replace it with halal chicken was met with fury from parents.
But Oakwood Technology College in Rotherham has backed down after parents of non-Muslim pupils complained.
The 1,000-pupil comprehensive planned to scrap the festive tradition even though only one in five students is Muslim.
A survey by the Daily Mail found Jesus in his manger with three wise men appeared in just one in every 100 cards.
Hundreds of cards avoided any images linked to Christmas at all, including fir trees, baubles, snowmen or Santa Claus.
Laura Midgley, co-founder of the Campaign Against Political Correctness, said: "No-one has ever been serious injured at a pantomime from something throwing a sweet to the audience.
"Instead of carrying out these preposterous risk assessments maybe they should concentrate on polishing their performance."
