I fear elf ’n’ safety would have stopped a cave rescue in this country

Days after they were extracted from what seemed certain to be a watery grave, I can’t stop thinking about the miracle of the cave rescue in Thailand.

Marooned for almost two weeks on a mud shelf deep underground as the storm clouds gathered above, their prospects were not good. It was a scene of biblical drama as the world held its breath while sending its prayers.

But here the boys are, smiling and sitting up in a sparkling hospital ward. still together! Begging for birthday treats and bowls of their favourite barbecue pork.

Bravo little Wild Boars. Bravo to the adult coach who kept them together and calm until help arrived. and a million bravos to the incredible men who got them out.

Led by British cave divers John Volanthen and Rick stanton, the rescue expedition was a rainbow coalition of Thai Navy seals, divers from all over the globe and aussie cave diving doctor, Richard Harris.

Their success was a triumph of courage and grit, ingenuity and engineering. In less than a week, there were steps cut into rock faces, water pumped out, lighting systems installed, oxygen tanks stored, choke points widened and hoists built along the treacherous route.

ANdyes, the most important thing. They sedated the boys to get them out, probably quite heavily. some people have aired misgivings about this risky approach. But what was the alternative in this now-ornever, life-or-death situation?

sedation protected the non-swimming boys from the horror and stopped them from panicking.

Would this medicated escape have been allowed in the UK? Hard to say. Certainly, there would have been an initial consultation period, meetings with parents, forms filled in, insurance claims filed, lawyers alerted. There would have been

IT WAS hard to watch the dismay of England’s footballers when they lost. All those man-hugs, man-kisses and mantears as Gareth Southgate ministered to his wounded flock, looking more like St Francis of Assisi with every beatific caress.

The team are being called ‘heroes’, but come on. In the semi-final, they missed a lot of chances and the better side won. They did their best and we all loved them for it, but let’s not go overboard and shower them with knighthoods and victory parades. After all, they lost.

It’s now time for everyone who doesn’t really know about football — including myself — to shut up about football. Until Euro 2020, of course.

prevarication, hand-wringing, pros and cons debated but in the end, health and safety experts would have probably have said ‘no’, refusing consent as the water levels rose and the parents begged them to tick the bloody box.

you think I’m exaggerating? seven years ago, a Gosport man drowned while feeding swans in a 3ft deep, man-made lake in a municipal park.

a policeman and a paramedic volunteered to rescue him, but were ordered to leave him floating face down instead. The constable and the ambulance worker (the latter trained to swim in white water rafting currents) were told by the fire station manager to stay put.

Why? ‘They had no protective equipment, so that was the end of that,’ he said.

also, ten years ago, a woman died after being trapped for six hours in a mine-shaft in ayrshire.

Her rescue was delayed as firefighters, who’d volunteered to be lowered down to save her, were over-ruled by senior officers — on health and safety grounds. When they eventually reached her, she had a heart attack, brought on by hypothermia.

In 2011, a 14-year-old girl collapsed on a cross country run in North London but paramedics refused to aid her because the terrain was ‘too slippy’. and police support officers in Wigan stood on the sidelines when a young boy drowned after jumping into a pond to try to rescue his sister, who survived.

While these may be isolated incidents, they are indicative of our growing risk aversion culture where fear of prosecution can imperil lives and put emergency services in impossible situations.

you only have to hear the firemen who have recently given evidence in the Grenfell inquiry.

Procedures must be followed, of course, but sometimes it sticks in the craw to see these brave men and women, who did their best in a desperate and lethal situation, being asked to account for their actions by bureaucrats and lawyers whose spines would turn to jelly at the first sign of danger.

OUTin the hellish caves in Thailand, tough, clever men made tough, clever decisions in an extreme situation. They were allowed to do things their way. after all, they knew best.

and so we watched as the children emerged in a kind of a rubber papoose — their bodies wrapped in foil blankets, with hot water bottles tucked alongside — like something the stork dropped. It was utterly, utterly amazing. Medicating the children was risky, but the whole operation was a massive risk.

Those who masterminded it risked everything, not just their lives but also their reputations and quite possibly their mental health, too.

If things had gone wrong — well, one shudders to even think about that. yet they saw the challenge for what it was and they did not hesitate to help.

Courage is not the absence of fear, but having the nerve to triumph over it.

sometimes you just have to let the brave be brave — although sadly, that is becoming increasingly rare in Britain.