OT paging Bear & others ref. Nanny State

He was exactly right though, wasn't he?

 

Useful for drying the washing on a rainy day, too.

 

Not at all, in fact I'd say that most of that article is complete bollocks.

Then again, it is in the Gruniad, so we should expect that, shouldn't we?

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The speccy Geordie twat.

 

How so? He points out, with supporting data, that the `compensation
culture' is bollocks and gives the example of the reduction in
compensation for those dead or dying from asbestos.

 

The threat of the compensation culture isn't in how much time is spent in court
or who has to be persuaded of what or what cash value is ultimately awarded at
the end of the day, it's about the fear that people have that they'll find
themselves in court for something that seems harmless.

So, while he argues that there isn't really a compensation culture in this
country he ignores that it's becoming harder to, say, find adults who are
willing to supervise children for activities that may carry an element of risk.

Whether we have a true compensation culture or not the appearance is that we
do, because when we watch TV we are bombarded by adverts for no-win no-fee
legal aid and we frequently get to see stories about claims that are appearing
before courts that seem ridiculous. They may well be so and there might never
be a penny paid out, but that doesn't get reported so often.

As for the asbestos thing ... he talks of having to pay "the full costs of the
deaths and injuries" and that the victims will now only receive "roughly half
of the compensation they were due". However he acknowledges that in America
juries decided the size of the award and juries can differ from case to case on
what they believe is the full cost of a death or injury, so to have an agreed
limit on what can be paid out seems sensible to me, rather than having jury A
suggesting that one persons life is worth a million dollars while jury B
decides that somebody with a bit of a cough deserves 150 million.

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The speccy Geordie twat.

 

Harder to find mugs who'd do such work ona self employed basis for a dodgy
agency or parent company you mean.

So you agree with Monbiot on this then

So who decides what someones life is worth, and on what criteria?

 

Thats more to do with paedobasher paranoia than compensation claims. In
the public sector it's the employer who would suffer the claim, not the
employee

Well american payouts have historically been greater then here for sure.

Not sure about that. 'Experts' tend to have vested interests and
paymasters.

 

Ah, fair enough squire.

Heh. Well sometimes it is. Which is why we have juries after all. They
come to a case 'ignorant' of the facts armed only with their 'common
sense'. Which is sometimes better than arriving with too many facts and
pre-concieved notions of what the outcome ought to be.

 

Heh, well at least that makes them an accurate reflection of the society
they acquired the prejudices from.

The judge often gives guidance, and I'm not against these things being
determined on a case by case basis, because of the multiplicity of
mitigating factors which are almost always present.

Fixed rates of so much for an arm, so much for loss of 30 years life
expectancy as dtermined by a one size fits all panel of experts don't take
account of the circumstances of the bereaved or carers etc.

In practice, it's a bit of both, there are guidelines as to the value of
different injuries or diseases, and the variation in awards reflects the
different circs of the victims and their kin.

 

Or maybe JC isn't very good at offroading in a 4x4...
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