Foreign Perspectives

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Although you might think that it would be difficult to get a famous name to speak for you at some event in fact it’s usually fairly easy as a considerable number of them are signed up with various talent agencies.

The range of those potentially available to you is staggering these days. Obviously you’ll need to pay serious cash for the really big names in the after dinner speakers market but there are hoards of less famous speakers who are equally great speakers in their fields and you may find that some of the ”lesser” speakers specialise in just the type of topics that you’re looking for anyway so it’s very much worthwhile to leaf through the listings.

If you are looking through for an affordable after dinner speaker for your event, unless your budget is substantial, you’ll find it useful to be creative in your selection and to consider a range of speakers who might be suitable. Many of these speakers are extremely flexible in what they can speak about for you so, for example, if you were to choose a famous climber you don’t need to assume that he’ll just speak about climbing as he will almost certainly be able to relate his experiences of climbing to the event which you’d like him to speak at.

Perhaps the extreme of flexibility is the likes of Rory Bremner who can weigh in with a range of voices in addition to a range of topics.

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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.

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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.

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