Somebody's been at the silly pills!

A council worker faces disciplinary action for taking it upon himself to lower his town hall flag to half-mast in honour of the six soldiers killed recently in Afghanistan.  It appears that in the view of the Council this amounted to "gross misconduct".  That would be bad - and silly - enough, but it gets worse - he also faces sanctions for failing to carry out "a thorough health and safety assessment" before lowering the flag. Who appoints these idiots??