Melbourne Caution

Melbourne Caution
Originally uploaded by Sapient Iguana

Melbourne is the only place I know where foot-path (side-walk) aberrations - uneven concrete slabs and the like - are regularly ground down so that careless people don't trip over them. Doubtless it's so the same careless people don't sue the local council for having an uneven foot-path. Judging by the degree to which foot-paths have every little unevenness ground out of them Australians are a careless (or possibly just litigious) lot.

I came across this set of stairs in my recent trip to Melbourne. It represents everything that makes me depressed about the ever encroaching over protectiveness of contemporary Australia (and elsewhere too - Britain is by no means immune). It's often referred to as the nanny state, but don't get me started...