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846   13 October 2003   

The Missing Link

We are trying to solve real social problems by using the wrong political tools.  Westminster is trying to pass responsibilities "back" to local communities - Police, civic disorder, education, NHS.  Yet those communities are politically ill-equipped to accept them - their political structures have been dismantled, emasculated.  And it will take time to repair those ravages. 

 

I have been trying to understand why “the State” is now becoming so hopelessly enmeshed in the personal lives of our citizens.  Despairing of the illiberality of the contemporary state, I recently wrote - 

“The last thing we need is the emergence of the State as quasi-family, as quasi-Church, as quasi-Village Bobby clipping teenagers around their "miserable ear-'oles" 

Yet our leaders are clearly genuine, both in motive and commitment. They believe it to be their duty to address newly-emerging problems of social disorder, child obesity, family disintegration, teenage vandalism.  And they may well be right.  It is the job of politics to remedy serious wrongs. 

But these are not tasks for the nation state.  They are tasks for our cities and their urban communities, where the problems principally arise.  I believe that all these problems are being tackled at the wrong level of government.  Most problems of crime and social disorder should be addressed by the communities in which they arise – both the wider urban community and the immediate neighbourhood.  I do not mean merely the organisation of the Police, though that is important.  I mean the generation of a holistic sense of civic responsibility, among all residents, for the entire community in which they pass their daily lives.

The tragedy of the UK is to have destroyed the very agencies, the very loyalties, the very allegiances, capable of delivering such a civic sense. France, Germany and Italy are much luckier, because they have retained strong forms of city - indeed communal - government.  In the UK, the power of the Westminster state has carried all before it, and we have now created mini-Westminsters in Cardiff and Edinburgh, without addressing local government reform.  

Let me make this clear: I favour provincial devolution (for England, as well as Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland) – but it is no substitute for effective local government.  Mancunians will never share the mind-set of Liverpudlians.  Cabinet attempts to “micro-manage” personal conduct and social behaviour have to resort to the blunt instruments of the nation state – prohibition, Police, imprisonment, coercion. 

That is what is going wrong.

Is this a counsel of despair?  It would seem so.  Both Tory and Labour Governments have systematically downgraded and demeaned local government since the 1970s, and New Labour continues to do so.  

But it is never too late to change political direction.  I plan to stand as a City Council candidate in next year’s Swansea local elections.  There are signs that some Westminster politicians at last realise that they are part of the problem, not the solution.  Jackie Ashley, writing perceptively in The Guardian, acknowledges the Westminster desire to hand over some its power, but she asks - “The first question is: “Hand back power to whom?”  

Labour’s “new localism”, however insubstantial and ill-considered it may be, indicates a willingness to re-think Westminster dominance.  This is fruitful political territory.  I want to see the formation of a “New Constitutional Convention”, which would explore the construction of a new UK Constitution, giving functional primacy to local institutions within the scope of their capacity, and assigning to higher levels of government only such functions as are strictly necessary.  We would re-draw the political landscape, for the benefit of all.

Do you share any of my interest in constitutional reform?  Drop me a line

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847  14 October 2003  

Curbing Litigation

Given the chance, the Court of Appeal is ready to damp down the fires of litigation.  There is no reason why the UK should follow the orgy of litigation now consuming US society.  UK senior judges are showing good common sense, in seeking to avoid the disruptive American experiment.  The trouble is that, because of high legal fees, very few cases get to the Court of Appeal, for authoritative decision.  That means that maverick local judgments and (worse still) settlements out-of-court come to dominate the gossip scene, and shape popular culture. 

Two recent gold-digging plaintiffs got their come-uppance recently in the Court of Appeal – Ms Laverton and Ms Beaton.  Both cases were under the Occupiers Liability Act 1957, which spells out the duties owed by those running premises to their visitors.  Both women won their case before the local County Court judge. But they both came unstuck before the Court of Appeal.

Ms Laverton slipped on the floor of her local chippie, the Takeaway Supreme, and broke her ankle, in spite of the “non-slip” floor-tiles that were installed.  It was accepted that the floor was wet with rainwater brought in by queuing customers during a period of heavy rain.  It was also accepted that at the time of the accident the doormat was not properly in place, at the entrance.  Ms Laverton was probably also a contributor to her own instability – she was wearing 1.5” heels and had consumed c 20 units of alcohol, after a good night out.  The Court of Appeal held that the Takeaway Supreme had taken all reasonable steps to ensure the safety of its customers.  There was no duty continually to mop the floor, or to check all the time the precise position of the doormat.  That would be, said Lord Justice Hale, “a counsel of perfection imposing a near-strict liability, which the law does not at present do”.  Ms Laverton’s damages claim failed.

Ms Beaton sued her local highway authority, Devon County Council, also for a misplaced heel. Highway authorities are treated legally as the “occupiers” of the streets and other public facilities which they maintain – hence all the paving-slab claims, also under the Occupiers’ Liability Act.  In this case, Miss Beaton was walking along a tunnel, along which ran a drainage gulley that was filled with loose gravel. Her heel strayed from the concrete edge onto the loose gravel – she fell and she was injured.  Here, there were no unusual circumstances: the gulley was simply “as designed”. The Court of Appeal (Lord Justice May) held that “the risk of accident was, in reality, minimal”, and that the County Court Judge had “imposed upon Devon County Council a higher standard of care than that required by statute”.  Ms Beaton's damages claim failed.

Gold-diggers – and ambulance-chasers – beware!  

The Lords Justice of Appeal are onto your case!

What do you think?  Drop me a line

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