Total Liability

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30127, 10 May 1963, Page 3

Total Liability

Sir.—lt is difficult for the lay mind to grasp the logic of Mr Justice McCarthy's argument as reported in “The Press.” He says that absolute liability must be accepted by motorists as part of the policy of the Welfare State. The inescapable assumption to be drawn from this statement is that nobody in a Welfare State should be held responsible for their own acts of stupidity, but should automatically profit by their results at someone else’s expense, The White Knight would almost certainly have concurred. The English Welfare State does not seem to endorse the sentiment though the density of traffic there is as high proportionately as it is here; and rather than revolutionise its judicial system, it would, I am sure, intro-

duce a more equitable method of relieving hardship than the one suggested above —perhaps in some form of Government insurance payable by the whole population. —Yours, etc.,' I.S.T. May 9, 1963.