It never ceases to amaze me the lengths people will go to to try to blame everything that happens to them onto someone else and then try to extract money for it.

The latest example concerns a midwife who wasn't looking where she was going and tripped over a child's buggy in the hallway of a house she was visiting.

A couple had just had twins and three days after the birth the midwife called to see if all was well. On her way out she apparently tripped and injured her back.

The next thing that happened is that the couple received a letter from a solicitor acting on behalf of the Royal College of Midwives threatening legal action under the Occupiers Liability Act 1957.

The claim is that the couple failed in their duty to provide a safe place for the midwife to work.

The vast majority of us do not live in showhomes, and when a new baby arrives there is always more clutter around. Sadly, we don't all have sufficient cupboards to put everything away.

We don't live in a perfect world. Hallways of homes do have things in them, pavements do have flagstones which protrude and cracks which appear.

People should look where they are going and if they trip and fall that's their fault, not the fault of everyone else.

People have a responsibility to look where they are going and not trip over things.

There's a vast difference between a situation like this and someone, for example, digging a hole in the road and not having it properly fenced and signed.

It was a sad day when a judge awarded damages for these kinds of cases and opened the floodgates, thus creating litigation culture and enabling solicitors to get richer – particularly with their appalling no win no fee which has contributed to greed culture.

stupidity

Another example of how daft Britain is getting concerns a local council which has advised its allotment holders to leave their sheds unlocked to save the damage to doors caused by thieves breaking in.

Apparently there has been a spate of thefts and the council-owned sheds have been damaged by thieves after valuable tools inside.

Well done, council. Think only of your sheds, don't bother about the tenants' tools and equipment inside, all of which would be stolen if it became a thieves' free-for-all.

Perhaps next we have a situation where every landlord will order his tenant to keep house doors unlocked to save damage being done to his property in the event of a break-in.

What it really comes down to is the problem in Britain today – everyone thinks of himself and to hell with everyone else.

That appalling selfishness is ruling people's lives and bit by bit is ruining Britain.

Stupidity v heroism

In pure contrast were the true British heroes who were awarded in a special televised ceremony last week, and included among them was our own local hero Carl Duval, 17.

When a woman fell from a railway platform at East Worthing, she struck her head and lay unconscious across the tracks.

Carl jumped down, lifting her to safety unaware that an express train was seconds away.

Contrast this and the actions of other heroes in the programme, to a news item screened hours earlier, describing how a group of people watched as police tried to talk a teenager from suicide from a tall building.

Many of them, apparently, shouted up to him encouraging him to jump and frustrated police in their failed efforts to dissuade him from jumping.

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