Foreign Perspectives

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When it’s a clear plastic bag that’s had a knot tied in it and doesn’t have a ziploc closing mechanism.

That’s the latest nonsense to come from my travels through airport security and one that was particularly crazy. The security staff focused all their attention on that “deficiency” in my packing and managed to miss four separate items that they should have looked at including one that they very definitely should have taken off me.

So what did they miss this time around?

1. A six inch steel pin. That’s definitely on their checklist of items that aren’t allowed through security yet they missed it entirely which is worrying.
2. A rather heavy iced cake. Eh? Well, considering that it was in a sealed transparent plastic container and the icing has the same look and consistency of plastic explosive they should at the very least have rescanned it with the box open.
3. The luggage scales. These look very suspicious on the scanner thanks to the spring mechanism yet they missed them entirely.
4. The resealable plastic bottles in the above plastic bag. No tests were done of the content and they should have been.

At the moment it seems that rather than being aimed at detecting potential terrorists, the security checks are there merely to annoy honest travellers.

Popularity: 22% [?]

The arrival of no win, no fee agreements in the UK is transforming the landscape of legal claims.

No longer do you need to dread going to a solicitor to make a claim against your employer for fear that the cost would bankrupt you and that’s a major, major plus.

Injury claims are the typical application of the no win, no fee legal teams. The range of areas under which you can make a no win, no fee claim is quite extensive covering road traffic accidents, accidents at work, tripping and slipping (eg in a supermarket) and product liability claims. All of these are areas where once it would have been a nightmare to think of claiming as the costs can be quite substantial.

How much can you get? Well, as they say in the ads “that depends”. For example, the whiplash that you might get in a car accident could bring you anything from £1000 to £5000 depending on the circumstances and the extent of your injury. A broken leg from £3000 to £20000, again depending on the circumstances.

How long does it all take? Again it depends but broadly speaking you’re talking in terms of months rather than years thanks to what’s called the “Pre-action Protocol” which speeds things up considerably compared to the typical timescales of a few years ago which is great news as nobody wants these things dragging on seemingly endlessly.

Popularity: 56% [?]

Looking for a car loan used to be a thankless task involving running to your bank to beg for some cash but these days car loans are a good deal easier to get.

Car finance is one of those areas of your financial life when it’s usually reasonably easy to get the money that you want for the car that you need. In fact, the car finance places usually want you to get a relatively new car rather than some old banger that they might be stuck with at some point.

That’s not to say that nipping out and trying to get car credit for a big Mercedes is going to be a runner if your finances wouldn’t normally stretch to that but you can almost certainly get a much nicer car than you might think, even if you have been refused car credit before.  Having said that, if your credit record is less than perfect, it’s best to look towards a company that is established in the bad credit market as they’ll know who to approach to get you the money.

Despite the so-called credit crunch, you’ll still find some no deposit deals on offer and often you can line up the finance then go to the dealer of your own choice for the car from places like NetCars.

Popularity: 31% [?]