It’s time to give up this costly probe into institutional sex abuse as a bad job
CAN anyone seriously imagine the child abuse inquiry meticulously investigating half a century of British life and reaching a worthwhile conclusion in ten years? Or 15?
Its scope is impossibly vast.
Its findings would make Chilcot look like a Post-it note.
It has already been going two years and achieved nothing except to spit out its first three chairwomen.
For all the new one’s confidence, her attempt has already hit trouble.
The priority must surely now be to tackle current abuse and put in place safeguards against a repeat of the recent horrors in Rotherham and elsewhere.
Some victims had life-changing ordeals decades ago and it will be desperately sad if they never get justice.
But we have little faith in this inquiry giving it to them or in modern Britain learning anything much from institutional abuse committed in another age.
If there is evidence and suspects are still alive, let police pursue it. But this costly probe should be given up as a bad job.
Compo clamp
COMPENSATION culture for car prangs is out of control: accidents down 40 per cent in 15 years, injury claims up 89 per cent.
We all pay through our insurance premiums to keep this gravy train going for claimants and their solicitors.
So we applaud the Government for tackling it. But it’s tricky.
Minor whiplash injuries causing only small discomfort and no loss of work should be treated, not compensated.
But the Government must be clear where it draws the line. It is dangerous to abandon the principle that blameless accident victims be compensated.
We must target crash-for-cash scams and the cold calls with which some legal firms drum up trade. Ever more rigorous checks must weed out fakers.
But if the Government wants premiums to fall it should hit insurers too.
Especially those who ramp up annual renewals and hope punters don’t notice.
Fix the roof
THE magnificent, historic Palace of Westminster is falling apart. We should spend the billions it will take to fix.
But we’d bet good money on the initial estimate tripling. And the last people capable of driving a hard bargain with builders are Whitehall mandarins.
It is vital taxpayers know a set price.
And let’s have a good few quotes, eh?
All-new blue
WANTING our blue passports back isn’t nostalgia for a bygone age. It’s the opposite.
As Labour MP Frank Field says, it’s about forging a new identity in the world.
They would denote our future independence after our past subservience.