No, of course it doesn’t stop with guns: The British Medical Journal, which we have had occasion to criticize in the past (see Dec. 17, 2001 and links from there), has run an editorial entitled “Reducing knife crime: We need to ban the sale of long, pointed kitchen knives”. (John Schwartz, “British Medical Experts Campaign for Long, Pointy Knife Control”, New York Times, May 27; Edward Black, “Doctors seek kitchen knife ban”, The Scotsman, May 27). Dave Kopel (May 27) has more. And: Max at Untamed Fire of Freedom comments (May 27).
Posts Tagged ‘United Kingdom’
Ted’s London travelogue
Over at Ted’s personal website — whoops, I don’t think I was supposed to mention yet that he has one — he’s recording various touristic impressions of the British scene, including Cadbury’s hot chocolate machines, whose prevalent dispensing temperature of 92 Celsius (c. 200 degrees Fahrenheit) may shed light on the Stella Liebeck vs. McDonald’s hot-coffee-spill controversy (May 20). The headline “New Bid To Curb Greedy Lawyers”, incidentally, can be traced to this Evening Standard piece (Joe Murphy, May 17) which summarizes new proposals from the Blair government aimed at bringing no-fee, no-win lawyers under greater control and curbing the rising perception of a “compensation culture” in the United Kingdom.
UK recreation roundup
The Lincolnshire town of Boston has canceled its annual flower and craft show, a major tourist draw, because it believes the risk of litigation is too high to proceed without hiring licensed stewards at prohibitive rates. (Nick Britten, “Flower show wilts in blame culture”, Daily Telegraph, Apr. 16). In Scotland, “Schools across Renfrewshire have banned pupils from taking part in after-school football [soccer] over fears they would be sued for injuries. … They were banned because volunteer coaches were not covered by the schools’ insurance schemes for after-class games.” (“Legal fears prompt football ban”, BBC, Mar. 12)(via Greg Skidmore, Mar. 14). At the secondary school in Chippenham, Wiltshire, students kick around a soda bottle (presumably of plastic rather than glass) after the school banned conventional footballs from the recess field; at other schools, tag and marbles are now against the rules, and don’t think of touch rugby. “Lots of people just play with bouncy balls, but I suspect that’ll be banned too before too long,” says a 15 year old boy at Abbeyfield (Tony Freinberg, “Can we have our ball back, please?”, Daily Telegraph, Mar. 20). And: “Children have been banned from collecting chickens’ eggs at the National Trust’s showpiece farm [Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire] because it is now deemed by health and safety advisers as too hazardous.” (David Sapsted, “Trust bans children from egg collecting”, Daily Telegraph, May 17).
However, in a widely noted case, a swimming club seeking the right to take winter swims in ponds north of London in the absence of lifeguards won a victory in the high court against the Corporation [i.e., city] of London, which “had claimed that it risked prosecution by the Health and Safety Executive if it allowed unsupervised dips.” Mr. Justice Stanley Burnton
ruled that the corporation had fallen into legal error and said club members should be able to swim at their own risk. He spoke out in favour of “individual freedom” and against the imposition of “a grey and dull safety regime”, adding that by granting permission to the club the corporation would not be liable to prosecution for breaches of health and safety.
Mary Cane, chair of the Hampstead Heath Winter Swimming Club, said:
“This was a test case with wide implications for all open swimming in England and represents another successful attack by ordinary citizens on the nanny state and the cult of health and safety.”
Ms Cane said that the club was proud to have played its part “in re-establishing an important principle of personal freedom in this country, taken for granted everywhere else, that responsible adults must be free to decide for themselves whether to pursue recreational activities involving an element of risk”.
(Clare Dyer, “Hardy bathers win right to swim unsupervised”, The Guardian, Apr. 27; Joshua Rozenberg, “Pond swimmers win right to take the plunge”, Daily Telegraph, Apr. 27; “Take the plunge” (editorial), Daily Telegraph, Apr. 27).
Hospital infections, a real crime
How is Britain’s new Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, addressing public alarm about “superbug” infections in hospitals? In part by floating the idea of criminally prosecuting hospital personnel after infections break out. And of course prosecutors will never for a moment consider bringing such charges without strong evidence of culpable mens rea on the part of the hospital personnel. Right? (Andrew Sparrow, “Warning to hospitals over MRSA”, Daily Telegraph, May 16). Hat tip and thanks for the link: Michelle Malkin, May 16.
Report from London
Ted (who reports that he’s having trouble posting directly while away) writes as follows:
I’m less than twelve hours into my first trip to London, and one can see right up front how badly the compensation culture has stunted the US compared to the UK. My ride from the airport was in a Mini Mayfair, which is even smaller than the small Mini Cooper, but one can also drive around the city in something called a “Smart Car,” an even teenier two-seater akin to the one Sam Lowry drove in Brazil. Any manufacturer trying to sell a car like that in the US would risk getting socked with punitive damages the first time the car ended up a loser in a collision with an SUV; after all, the disingenuous plaintiff’s attorney would say, the manufacturer was clearly more concerned with profits than with safety by daring to sell a small car. (Never mind the environmental differences, or the fact that the availability of a cheap SmartCar could vastly improve the lives of many working poor.)
The escalators in the Underground move about 60% faster than the ones in the DC Metro. I’m looking forward to studying whether London has a worse safety record with its escalators. I would hypothesize that, aside from the King’s Cross fire, they do not: people are just more careful, because (1) the escalators are plainly dangerous, rather than giving the illusion of safety that a slow escalator does; and (2) Brits know that if they hurt themselves, they can’t blame someone else, much less potentially collect millions (Feb. 13). It’s just so nice to be treated like an adult.
I wouldn’t trade the American way for the British way, but we could learn a thing or two.
£204.53 dispute, £350,000 cost of defense
In Bexleyheath, Kent, England, Michelle Alabaster is celebrating her victory in a nine-year legal battle over a government mistake which led her private employer to undercalculate the amount of maternity leave owed her in 1995. The case ramified and went up to the appeals level before its recent resolution, under which Ms. Alabaster was found indeed entitled to the disputed £204.53; Her Majesty’s government estimates that it spent £350,000 defending its side of the dispute. The disproportion is not actually as irrational as it might seem, however, since the issues contested are likely to affect entitlement to maternity leave in many other cases (Becky Barrow, “Mother wins maternity case after nine years”, Daily Telegraph, May 4).
“Butter knife ‘an offensive weapon'”
Britain’s High Court has rejected an appeal by Charlie Brooker of Kent over his conviction for carrying a bladed instrument without good reason. Brooker’s lawyer, Mark Hardie, argued that the butter knife in question “had no handle, sharp edges or points and therefore could not fall foul of a law intended to protect people from dangerous weapons”, but the judges observed that the law by its terms did not confine itself to sharp or dangerous blades. “During the hearing, Mr. Hardie said the law would now catch even plastic knives restaurants and cafes supplied to customers with take-away food.” (Duncan Gardham, Daily Telegraph, Apr. 14; John Aston, “Carrying A Butter Knife May Lead to Prosecution”, The Scotsman, Apr. 13).
U.K. roundup
Meals-on-wheels officials in Gloucestershire were preparing to distribute to elderly clients paper napkins printed with tips on how to avoid being a crime victim, but paused the initiative after being warned that no safety assessment had been made of the possible choking hazard should pensioners insert the napkins into their mouths; the distribution eventually went forward, but critics said the episode encouraged the portrayal of aged persons as senile (Martin Wainwright, “No napkins … elderly might eat them”, The Guardian, Apr. 13). The Royal Chesterfield hospital is locked in a longstanding battle with claims-chasers who prowl its accident and emergency facilities promoting no-win, no-fee legal practices. Said a spokesman: “They have been approaching patients, asking them how they came about their injuries, was it their fault and if they want to sue. We have had several complaints from patients. These people are also handing out official-looking leaflets with an NHS-type logo which makes it look as if the hospital is endorsing their actions.” (Nick Britten, “Hospital lawyers target ‘ambulance chasers'”, Daily Telegraph, Apr. 14). Until recently a number of Scottish prisons provided inmates with chamberpots rather than in-cell toilets for overnight use; the practice has now been ruled a human rights violation and taxpayers are on the hook for compensation claims that some see rising as high as £100 million. (Hamish MacDonell and John Robertson, “Slopping-out prisoners ‘to sue for £100m'”, The Scotsman, Feb. 11; Kirsty Scott, “Slopping out judged a breach of human rights”, The Guardian, Apr. 27, 2004). And the newsletter of the Association of Lloyd’s Members, serving participants in the venerable London insurance market, will be reprinting with credit occasional items from this website (after having asked our permission, which we were happy to grant).
Melton Mowbray
The concept of appellation controlee, along with an accompanying high-stakes lawsuit, hits the world of traditional British pork pies. (Raffi Melkonian, Crescat Sententia, Aug. 5, 2004).
U.K.: “Safe for 72 years, now Cake Walk must close”
“Health and safety officers have closed Britain’s last ‘moving staircase’ fairground attraction, even though the ride has operated in complete safety for the past 72 years.” The owner of the former Butlin’s camp at Felixstowe says he believes the cakewalk, which has been running since 1933, is the last one left in Britain; “inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive have ruled that it must be closed because it no longer meets modern safety standards.” (David Sapsted, Daily Telegraph, Mar. 26; “Health and safety takes the cake”, Suffolk Evening Star, Mar. 25).