EXPLORERS and adventurers helped to put the “great” into Great Britain and thankfully there are still a few of them left to inspire us. But I seriously wonder what kind of country we will finish up with in years to come, once all that youthful obesity and ‘elf and safety work their way through.

Britain is destined to be?come a nation of wimps and wusses whose idea of an imaginative adventure is playing the latest computer game. We are breeding a couch potato society. Health and safety bureaucracy, combined with the threat of litigation, means that nobody dare take the merest step outside their comfort zone lest some injury accrues.

Already we are witnessing the demise of traditional events. Even if they can find youngsters willing to take part, there are so many hoops for organisers to jump through they wonder if it’s worth the hassle.

The latest traditional bank holiday event to bite the dust is the Whitsun cheese rolling competition on a Cotswold hillside. Admittedly this one is a bit more hazardous than most. Even the event’s own website pointed out that many people get injured with mostly sprains and minor bumps and bruises.

Organisers have knocked this year’s cheese rolling on the head because of health and safety fears. No more shall brave, some would say foolhardy, youths come cartwheeling down the slippery slope in pursuit of a 7lb Double Gloucester. “We have had to cancel on the advice of the police and local authorities,” said a cheesed off spokesman.

And so another part of that eccentric culture for which the English have always been known bows before those twin spoilsports, health and safety. We have always had a barmy streak in this country. But that is what helped to make us world leaders. Great adventurers had to be slightly mad, otherwise they would never have embark?ed on missions that stepped out into the unknown.

In a few weeks’ time some of Britain’s modern day adventurers will be in the Lake District for Keswick’s fourth annual Mountain Festival. People like Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Cumbria’s own Leo Houlding, whose climbing feats make Spiderman look arthritic.

We need to value these people. Britain may be a second rate nation now, but they set an inspirational example that the game isn’t entirely up whatever clipboard clutching health and safety officials might say.

THE HEALTH OF THE YOUNG NATION

THE latest evidence of failure in the field of school sport came this week with news that some secondary pupils could be forced to take an annual fitness test.

Child fitness is falling by up to nine per cent. every decade. Pupils are supposed to get a minimum of two hours of PE a week according to Government guidelines. But 10 per cent of children aren’t even getting that amount of school sport. Since 1997, more than 2,000 school playing fields have been sold off.

The tests have been branded as yet another example of official interference and intrusion into people’s lives and ordinarily I would agree. But when you consider the health of the nation and the cost of treating heart disease, strokes and diabetes, among other illnesses which can be related to obesity, then we really do need to drag kids away from their bedroom TV sets and their Gameboys out into the fresh air. Lack of exercise is placing a greater demand on the economy than smoking, according to the Government’s chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson.

It would also be beneficial for the Government to sponsor some of our modern day adventuring and exploring greats to go into schools and enthuse a whole new generation. But first we have got to scrap the cloying restrictions of excessive health and safety and give our kids something worthwhile they can aspire to.

GIVE TOURISM A BETTER PROFILE

TRY as I might I just couldn’t answer the question. Who is the tourism minister? I bet most readers aren’t sure either. Whoever wins the forthcoming election, I would like to see the role of tourism minister given a higher profile as Britain attempts to come to terms with its huge financial problems.

Gordon Brown paid lip service to tourism in this part of the world when he spent a few days holidaying in Cumbria last summer. “Staycation” was the buzz word of the year as the tourist industry fought for a larger share of the cake among holidaymakers staying closer to home. Sadly the words “barbecue summer” were not as appropriate.

But now it all starts again. And back to the original question posed by a friend who got it in a pub quiz and didn’t know the answer either. Looking it up on the Department of Culture, Media and Sport website it appears to be Margaret Hodge MBE. As a former councillor for Islington who gained her BSc at the London School of Economics, the Member for Barking may seem an odd choice for the tourism portfolio unless it’s felt that only London tourism really counts.

The minister’s other duties include responsibility for creative industries, royal parks and something that sounds worryingly characteristic of the present Government, “Better Regulation”.

Tourism has a major role to play in Britain’s economy. It’s worth £135 billion a year and employs three million workers. Yet there are five Government departments involved in the sector and the annual funding for Visit Britain, our tourism agency, has been cut by £9 million in the last three years.

Most EU countries have a full time tourism minister — unlike us. I suppose I’m yelling in the dark, but let’s have a high profile minister to give the industry the importance it deserves for a change.

WATCH THAT KILLER NOSE DRIP

WHILE I have the greatest sympathy for people whose lives end in such misery that death seems a merciful release, I do have reservations about assisted suicide.

Later this year the Dutch parliament will debate a plan that anyone over 70 who “considers their life complete” and wishes to die should be helped on their way. Most considerate of them.

Where does it begin and end? These days being old is almost looked on as a crime. The elderly are made to feel a drain on services and the economy. It’s a wonder Government hasn’t already considered issuing suicide pills to enable a few oldies to do the decent thing.

There will be quite a few older people out there who have a mental picture of relatives gathered at the bedside having checked that there’s a will, just waiting for the nod.

OAPs beware. One sniffle, one hint of a spring cold and you could be dispatched before you know it, mercifully terminated to save all that pain and distress for your friends and family.

NOT WITH MY MONEY YOU DON’T

THERE have been renewed suggestions, in the light of rows over funding of our major political parties, that private donations and union cash should be scrapped and the State take over provision.

No way are these scoundrels and expense fiddlers getting any more of my money if I can help it. It would be a green light to spend billions of pounds from the public purse. Our politicians have already demonstrated they can’t be trusted and it would be a massive mistake to give them yet another opportunity to show profligacy at our cost.