well since it's a fine, not a compensation payment then it's not really a "valuation" of human life is it?
Thanks for pointing that out Stoner - it makes me feel a whole lot better.
The reason I am aware of this case is because Noel Corbin was a local lad from the New Addington estate in Croydon. For those who don't know, New Addington is a vast neglected estate and unemployment hotspot. It has a below average life expectancy and the Fieldway ward has the lowest average income of any London ward.
It shows just how of touch judges and coroners are when St Pancras coroner Dr Andrew Reid asked HSE inspector Mark Shearon: "Isn't there a responsibility on the employee? You say you would have walked away?".
Clearly Dr Andrew Reid doesn't understand how important it is for a young black man living on the New Addington estate not to get himself the sack by walking away from a job.
It also shows how Cameron's "For too long we've taken a too soft attitude towards people that loot and pillage their own community" tough stance, doesn't extend to those who shirk their responsibility to employees.
If Noel Corbin had walked away, lived, made himself unemployed, and looted Croydon the other day, he would have faced the full force of the law. But Tony Smith on the other hand lives a free man, carrying on in business and without even a suspended sentence. That's the sort of society we live in, destroying property is more serious than destroying lives. How terribly Tory.
