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"The former boss of a no-win no-fee compensation firm has been killed in a car crash." Apparently no other vehicle was involved, so nobody will hear, "Have you been in an accident that wasn't your fault? We can help with our No Win, No Fee service." Seems like the guy embezzled large sums of money from the company, laid off several thousand workers, and fled abroad with the cash and his sports car, as if running an ambulance-chasing law firm wasn't parasitical and anti-social enough. Good riddance! Of course people should be held accountable for negligence, but somewhere we crossed the line into "I could make some money out of that". Not good for society.
Speaking of large and dubious payouts to people, I'm quite glad that The Ministry of Defence has barred military personnel from selling their stories to the media. Going running to the Sunday papers is just going to make the armed forces lose respect in the eyes of the population both at home and abroad, which quite possibly endangers lives. These were not poor civilians abducted while taking innocent tourist pictures of Persepolis, but members of the military, including several Royal Marines who undergo the longest infantry training in the world, who you might reasonably expect to encounter these situations, and certainly cope with them much better. Additionally, there's something perverse in capitulating without a fight, lying on television to attempt to win your freedom, and then making thousands of pounds off it, whereas other servicemen and women die in the line of duty with neither the same amounts of cash going to their families or even the same amount of attention given to their plight.
On the other hand, if the MoD were to pay compensation for the rather ridiculous situation it put those sailors and marines into in the first place, by failing to provide the sort of cover that you might expect when operating no more than 1700 metres from territory belonging to what the Prime Minister called "the strategic threat to the region", I'd be fine with that.
Speaking of large and dubious payouts to people, I'm quite glad that The Ministry of Defence has barred military personnel from selling their stories to the media. Going running to the Sunday papers is just going to make the armed forces lose respect in the eyes of the population both at home and abroad, which quite possibly endangers lives. These were not poor civilians abducted while taking innocent tourist pictures of Persepolis, but members of the military, including several Royal Marines who undergo the longest infantry training in the world, who you might reasonably expect to encounter these situations, and certainly cope with them much better. Additionally, there's something perverse in capitulating without a fight, lying on television to attempt to win your freedom, and then making thousands of pounds off it, whereas other servicemen and women die in the line of duty with neither the same amounts of cash going to their families or even the same amount of attention given to their plight.
On the other hand, if the MoD were to pay compensation for the rather ridiculous situation it put those sailors and marines into in the first place, by failing to provide the sort of cover that you might expect when operating no more than 1700 metres from territory belonging to what the Prime Minister called "the strategic threat to the region", I'd be fine with that.