Compensation

For donkey’s years, the photographic industry has limited compensation for damaged film to the value of the film itself rather than the cost of the holiday on which you took them. We didn’t like it but we had to put up with it. No other deal was on offer.

Now after the volcanic ash debacle, Ryanair is saying that its liability should be no more than the price of the flight. I agree with them for once. You cannot reasonably expect compensation many times greater than the price you paid for the original transaction. If you think you should, then the price of the original transaction must go up considerably to cover the contingency. Are you prepared to pay for that?

Many years ago, Range Rover placed a fuel pressure regulator (which I sold them) costing £4, behind their V8 engine and against the bulkhead. If it failed, which it did occasionally, then it was engine out to get at it. Cannot remember the cost now but it was something of the order of £250 or even more. So I told them to piss off and offered them £20 which they grudgingly accepted.

We live in a compensation world, fuelled by lawyers who are after making their own profit as they have always done. The hypocrisy of all this lies in the fact that people who take no fucking risks expect those that do, to look after them in every conceivable way.

Let me digress. One of our engineers, got a PCB plot wrong – a mirror image. It cost £7,500 to correct that mistake. Our Finance Director, a nice lad, said we should sack him. I asked why? You make mistakes too but all it takes to correct yours is an eraser or the F2 button. Just be grateful that your errors are cost free.

Let’s move on to Hull where there were considerable floods years ago. A lot of people were uninsured and clamoured for Government help. As one newspaper writer said, ‘If a lot of them had 32” LCD TV’s instead of 42” ones, the savings might just have funded some insurance.'

But back to Ryanair. Our TV screens were full of families who had forked out as much as £3,000 on their holidays but failed to take out insurance. Fuck them, I say, swim home!

I am not a fan of insurance and certainly not insurance companies who will wriggle and squirm to avoid their obligations but they are a necessary evil.

Bottom line is that this world does not owe you or me a living and it’s high time we all understood that.