I read with interest the letter from Paul Smith (Gazette, 4 June) regarding holiday claims.

It appears that, when he is not travelling on the Clapham omnibus, our ordinary man is on the Torremolinos flight, having saved for 12 months for his holiday.

I am not sure that I have ever come across such diligent holiday planning, but is Mr Smith saying that only poor, conscientious savers are allowed to claim? I was not aware that a prerequisite of compensation is some sort of moral entitlement.

This looks rather too much like the ‘innocent victim’ (is there any other kind of victim?) approach, or the hackneyed phrase, the ‘hard-working family’. I would respectfully suggest that politics has nothing to do with it.

If someone has really suffered significant illness and it is the hotel’s fault, of course they can claim, irrespective of how long it took them to save up for the holiday.

However, the huge increase in claims cannot be denied, nor can the existence of that other stereotype, the claimant who has a gallon of lager and half a litre of red wine and claims his holiday illness was due to a dodgy prawn.

James Pinder, Partner, DWF, Liverpool

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