Saturday 1 May 2010

More defensive actions

A Couple of weeks ago the headline in the local paper was about the closure of playgrounds because the council cannot afford to improve the safety surfaces. So 19 have to go with the hope that others can be improved. Yesterday I wrote about defensive policing and defensive medicine. Here we have defensive actions from a council. There is an argument that says that the council has a case to answer if children are injured on a park. There is an argument that medical negligence should lead to compensation. There is an argument that police actions should be accountable and relevant compensation should be paid when errors occur.

The problem with these arguments is that society is stagnating. Inaction wins the day. Paperwork becomes more important than hands-on work. In practice we have play areas closing, police officers not making the decision that they want to but the decision that defends them if they are held to account. It means that we have to be admitted to hospital even if it is against the better judgement of the doctor.

Change the world

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