Some people tend to class me as a "hard-nosed hack. It's a badge I am happy to wear. I've been working in newspapers for nigh on forty years and it does take quite a lot to shock me.
Momentous events can do it. I still remember like it was yesterday the moment I heard that there was a disaster unfolding on the Leppings Lane terrace at Hillsborough. It's the same with those images of 9/11 that are indelibly imprinted on the mind.
Otherwise I tend to keep my cool. But what does have the power to wind me up is blatant injustice.
Whether it's a police officer abusing his warrant card by parking his car on a yellow line while he nips into a buttie bar to meet his mates (and I witnessed that in Birkenhead a few days ago), or the more flagrant cases which show the law is an ass... it gets my dander up.
And we have seen a classic example in Liverpool this week. It's the tragic case of Chris Knoop who died in a fire at North West Aerosols in Aintree in 2005.
A judge at the crown court said the factory was "an accident waiting to happen" yet he could fine the firm only £2 because the directors of the limited company had put it into liquidation.
No matter that those directors have considerable personal assets. No matter that THEY were in day to day control of the plant. They can't be touched. The Health and Safety Executive can't prosecute them, because the law is too weak.
The law is an ass and it is an outrageous injustice.
I feel great sympathy for his sister Christal who has bravely pledged to fight to get a change in the law in the hope other deaths can be prevented.
There are just too many cases like this and I agree with Christal and her supporters that until the bosses of negligent companies are punished there will be more needless deaths.
They say the H&SE is under-resourced. But I tend to think it is just too bureaucratic.
The H&SE need to pull their socks up and be far more pro-active and open about what they do.
I'd like to see them mount advertising campaign encouraging people to blow the whistle on dangerous factories. It would be a start.
Closure of the CUC in Liverpool - sad day
(Tue 03/01)
Banksy the religious bigot
(Thu 29/12)
The Big Yin is on his way... I can't wait
(Thu 10/11)
A tale of two museums
(Tue 30/08)
Rosie Cooper - we need more politicians like her
(Mon 06/06)
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