Today I'm angry about.....

[Montreal Wanderer]

A friend of ours is a primary school head teacher in a very poor area. They had 2 successful claims last year and 3 attempts to make claims based on children injuring themselves. She suspects the others may well be paid out on as it can be more expensive to contest the claim. That's just one school. She quoted examples of other local heads having the same issue. I've no reason to suspect she's having me on, based on the fact that she's absolutely feckin livid about one claim in particular.

It's a bit hard to find the extent of such cases in the UK. However, the Ministry of justice publishes quarterly reports of civil actions. In here for April-June, 2016 I read:

In April to June 2016, a total of 397,504 claims were issued, an 8% increase on the same quarter last year (see Table 1.1 and Figure 1.1). This is the highest second quarter total since 2006. Looking at the longer term annually, there was a general downward trend in the total number of claims between 2006 and 2012, which has since reversed (albeit with a slight decrease of 2% in 2015 compared to 2014). Figures for the first half of 2016 suggest a continuation of the increasing trend.


In April to June 2016, 83% of all claims were money claims, an increase of two percentage points on the same quarter in 2015. Of these money claims, 90% (294,181) related to claims for specified amounts of money (two percentage points higher than the same quarter last year). The sharp increase in the number of specified money claims (up 12% from the same quarter last year) has driven the increase seen in total claims this quarter. The remaining 10% of money claims related to unspecified money claims, down two percentage points from the same quarter last year

Unspecified money claims include personal injury, which make up the overwhelming majority of these claims. In April to June 2016, 94% of unspecified money claims were for personal injury, around the same level seen in April to June 2015. This proportion has been consistent since the second quarter of 2012, when the County Court Money Claims Centre (CCMCC) took over the processing of the money claims and more accurately recorded personal injury claims (Table 1.2). Personal injury claims were down 5% on the same quarter of 2015.

p. 6


Further on (p.8 ) it states:

For money claims, if the claim is defended, further information is usually provided by each of the parties, after which the case is allocated by a judge to one of three case-management tracks. In April to June 2016, a total of 35,873 allocations were made, only 132 more than the same period last year.

The three case-management tracks are small claims (46%), fast-track (45%) and multi-track, generally for claims exceeding 25,000 quid (9%).

Now I'll try a little mathematics which Pru can check.

Cases filed= 397,504
Money claims filed = 329,928 (397,504 x .83)
Personal injury claims filed = 3,299 (329,928 x .1)
Cases allocated = 330 (3299 x .1)

So, assuming the quarter to be typical, there are around 13,196 cases filed per year for personal injury of which some 1,320 go on to court unsettled.
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"If you cannot answer a man's argument, all it not lost; you can still call him vile names. " Elbert Hubbard.
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[Prufrock]

I'm having horrendous civil lit. flashbacks when you mention the CCMCC.

[Montreal Wanderer]

I'm having horrendous civil lit. flashbacks when you mention the CCMCC.

I didn't mention it - MoJ did. I'd never heard of it.

[Lord Kangana]

So, if we were to see the positives, there was a decline in second quarter claims for the decade since 2006 until now?

Hang on, isn't now post-Brexit? Brexit anxiety must be to blame for the spike in claims!

Eat your heart out Peter Hitchins, this making shit up and extrapolating false dichotomies is a piece of piss.

[bobo the clown]

Are industry statistics for the past 2 months issued yet ?

Peter Hitches will know I'm sure.

[Lord Kangana]

He'll have already written his opinion on the next ten years worth, so we'll just make them fit the story later.

[Prufrock]

Saw Phil Collins was trending and got excited.

[Dr Hotdog]

Saw Phil Collins was trending and got excited.

Is he not getting the band back together?

[Hoboh]

Weather forecasts and the multi-million £ industry that supports these charlatans.

How can Wed, Thurs, Fri have been nice sunny days yesterday now it's clouds and showers
Nearly booked a couple of nights away on the bikes on their forecast.

And we trust these people know what they are talking about in relation to climate change?

Stick your head out of the door, it's more scientific.

[Bruce Rioja]

Saw Phil Collins was trending and got excited.

Is he not getting the band back together?

Oh FFS!!!!

All the more reason to listen to Radio 4.

[LeverEnd]

Louis Smith having to grovel round mosques. He was a dick, has apologised. Islam is not above criticism in a free democracy. The Peterbrough council member (muslim, unsurprisingly) who tried to take away the honours the city is set to bestow upon him for his many achievements is a sad pathetic bastard. Like many , he is a muslim first and everything else is at best a distant second.
I personally can't stand Smith but British Gymnastics should grow a set and defend one of their own.

[malcd1]

No religion is above criticism LE and certainly not Islam. They should all be ridiculed in equal amounts but Islam seems to think they are above criticism. In fact, I can find 13 countries that have the death penalty for being an atheist. What do you think these countries have in common? Yes, they are all Muslim - Afghanistan, Iran, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen..

As of 2012, 33 countries had some form of anti-blasphemy laws in their legal code. Of these, 20 countries were Muslim-majority.

[Montreal Wanderer]

No religion is above criticism LE and certainly not Islam. They should all be ridiculed in equal amounts but Islam seems to think they are above criticism. In fact, I can find 13 countries that have the death penalty for being an atheist. What do you think these countries have in common? Yes, they are all Muslim - Afghanistan, Iran, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen..

As of 2012, 33 countries had some form of anti-blasphemy laws in their legal code. Of these, 20 countries were Muslim-majority.

Anti-blasphemy laws were only repealed in the UK in 2008 (although one doubts there were many recent prosecutions) so you are just under the wire. Blasphemy laws which target a minority (e.g. Christians in a Muslim country) and carry the death penalty are, I believe, considered a crime against humanity and even genocide in international law.

[malcd1]

No religion is above criticism LE and certainly not Islam. They should all be ridiculed in equal amounts but Islam seems to think they are above criticism. In fact, I can find 13 countries that have the death penalty for being an atheist. What do you think these countries have in common? Yes, they are all Muslim - Afghanistan, Iran, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen..

As of 2012, 33 countries had some form of anti-blasphemy laws in their legal code. Of these, 20 countries were Muslim-majority.

Anti-blasphemy laws were only repealed in the UK in 2008 (although one doubts there were many recent prosecutions) so you are just under the wire. Blasphemy laws which target a minority (e.g. Christians in a Muslim country) and carry the death penalty are, I believe, considered a crime against humanity and even genocide in international law.

Canada could be about to change their own blasphemy laws according to Wiki.

Blasphemous libel is a crime in Canada under section 296 of the Criminal Code R.S.C., 1985, c. C-46. Subsection (1) reads:

"Every one who publishes a blasphemous libel is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years".

Subsection (3) reads:

"No person shall be convicted of an offence under this section for expressing in good faith and in decent language, or attempting to establish by argument used in good faith and conveyed in decent language, an opinion on a religious subject".

Over the summer of 2016, a petition to parliament asking that the blasphemous libel law be repealed was circulated by several Canadian humanist groups. The petition was scheduled to be presented after October 20, 2016, the deadline for collecting signatures.

[Montreal Wanderer]

No religion is above criticism LE and certainly not Islam. They should all be ridiculed in equal amounts but Islam seems to think they are above criticism. In fact, I can find 13 countries that have the death penalty for being an atheist. What do you think these countries have in common? Yes, they are all Muslim - Afghanistan, Iran, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen..

As of 2012, 33 countries had some form of anti-blasphemy laws in their legal code. Of these, 20 countries were Muslim-majority.

Anti-blasphemy laws were only repealed in the UK in 2008 (although one doubts there were many recent prosecutions) so you are just under the wire. Blasphemy laws which target a minority (e.g. Christians in a Muslim country) and carry the death penalty are, I believe, considered a crime against humanity and even genocide in international law.

Canada could be about to change their own blasphemy laws according to Wiki.

Blasphemous libel is a crime in Canada under section 296 of the Criminal Code R.S.C., 1985, c. C-46. Subsection (1) reads:

"Every one who publishes a blasphemous libel is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years".

Subsection (3) reads:

"No person shall be convicted of an offence under this section for expressing in good faith and in decent language, or attempting to establish by argument used in good faith and conveyed in decent language, an opinion on a religious subject".

Over the summer of 2016, a petition to parliament asking that the blasphemous libel law be repealed was circulated by several Canadian humanist groups. The petition was scheduled to be presented after October 20, 2016, the deadline for collecting signatures.

Interesting, malc. I assume there is a difference between the crimes of blasphemy and blasphemous libel, the former being speaking sacrilegiously about God while the latter would be published vilification, etc. of Christians (and presumably other religious groups). I imagine the latter could also be handled under our laws outlawing preaching hatred against an identifiable group. So I don't think blasphemy (saying things against Pru's invisible friend) is a crime in Canada but blasphemous libel is (as I just found out from your post - I'll have to watch myself ).

[Prufrock]

F*cking poppy nonsense already. It gets earlier every year, I tell you.

[Prufrock]

Waiting for Johnny Marr on Newsnight listing to some proper abject, pathetic relativism about Louis Smith.

[malcd1]

The gymnast, Louis Smith, receives a 2 month ban from the sport and receives daily death threats from Muslims after mocking Islam. Blasphemy by the back door.

A Saudi man receives a 10 year prison sentence, orders him to pay 20,000 riyals (about $5,330) and receive a beating consisting of 2,000 lashes for posting atheist tweets. Atheist thought in any form, or calling into question the fundamentals of the Islamic religion has been criminalised in Saudi Arabia.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/sau ... st-tweets/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Freedom of speech is also the freedom to mock. How long before the blasphemy laws are brought back in the UK because people are so insecure about their religions that they cannot handle criticism. Any religion based on prophets and invisible sky gods needs to be mocked at every opportunity. Just because some people are offended does not mean they are in the right or that their imaginary gods exist.

[TANGODANCER]

Any religion based on prophets and invisible sky gods needs to be mocked at every opportunity. Just because some people are offended does not mean they are in the right or that their imaginary gods exist.

Whilst agreeing totally at the nonsense by the fanatical, generally, the people who truly believe in God in the western world are secure enough in their beliefs to let the rest believe what they will. They don't see the need to be offended or mock anyone. Outrage is human frailty, not religion.

Remember the hoo ha about the book, The Da Vinci Code? An absolutely crackingly clever and purely fictional story (with a big emphasis on story by an intelligent author who made a bomb leading everybody by the noses. Of all the gullible who got offended in a religious sense, the least reaction came not from those who set off for Rome on a mystery tour, but from the Vatican who just laughed. They didn't refuse permission for scenes from the movie to be filmed inside the Vatican as outrage, they just didn't want a circus made of Christianity by Hollywood money moguls. Dan Brown probably had a good laugh and moved on to his next book.

[Harry Genshaw]

F*cking poppy nonsense already. It gets earlier every year, I tell you.