Oh, no they can't

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. Instead organisers of one pantomime have been told they must go down into the crowd and hand out the sweets. The ruling was made by a committee for the Preston Drama Club in Lancashire which fears an injury could spark a compensation claim. Committee members believe it would be far too costly to insure against a member of the audience losing an eye or sustaining another injury. But 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. These are only sweets, they wouldn't hurt anybody.” Evening Standard 12/12/06.