November 2008 Archives

 by Allan Norman

It is allegedly Solon of Athens (c 638-558 BC) who we have to thank for having introduced the right of citizens to sue each other. Apart from lawyers, it is doubtful whether even those who participate in such litigation greet this development with huge enthusiasm.

Two recent developments in the field of social care can be said to share a characteristic that they extend the scope of available compensation, but with very different financial consequences for statutory social services authorities.

 by Allan Norman

Three questions: When will we be able to know that Adam Rickwood's death was not in vain? How should a social worker running a Secure Training Centre approach human rights? And would you remove a child from a parent who calculatingly gave them a bloody nose?

8 August 2004 - Adam Rickwood becomes the youngest person to die in UK custody in modern times. Adam hung himself in Hassockfield Secure Training Centre 6 hours after staff applied "nose distraction" techniques. According to the Youth Justice Board, this involves inflicting "a momentary burst of pain to the nose". The Guardian reported that this "has variously been described as a squeezing, tweaking, flicking or karate-like chop to the nose. Adam bled for an hour. Six hours later he killed himself."

 by Allan Norman

I once observed that a fellow social worker had posted a defamatory comment online here. Community Care - understandably cautious, when a lawyer makes such an observation to the world at large - removed the defamatory content, although you can still read my observations here.

In a fascinating recent development, Smith v ADVFN Plc & Ors [2008] EWHC 1797 (QB) (25 July 2008), the libel courts have had to consider the question whether comments made in online forums can actually constitute libel. The short answer is: possibly not, if you are careless enough in what you say!

Reflections on the symbolism of the poppy

The Poppy - A Symbol of Our Times

The Guardian - 10th November 2007.  A soldier patrolling poppy fields in Afghanistan.  A headline - "Pay Them Not To Grow Poppies".

We will remember the victims of the "war on terror".  People detained indefinitely without charge or trial in Guantanamo Bay, sometimes for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, by a nation that holds itself out as the exemplar of freedom and democracy.  Jean Charles de Menezes, shot dead by mistake in that same war on terror.  The victims of torture in Abu Ghraib prison, victims in that same war on terror. 

We will remember them.