ninme

The Times – Good luck is ours. But bad luck is everyone else’s<br/> Why do other people expect us to bail them out when things go wrong? By Stephen Pollard

A while ago, I had a puncture. I was on my way home and suddenly I was stranded. For some reason it never occurred to me that I could hail a taxi to take me home and expect you to pay for it.

According to reports at the weekend, taxpayers – you and me, in other words – will be stiffed to the tune of £20 million to pay for the flights home of some people caught out by the collapse of XL. The Civil Aviation Authority runs a compensation scheme to take care of stranded holidaymakers and to refund forthcoming holidays that won’t take place. But the scheme is already £21 million in deficit. So guess who is going to pick up the tab? You and me.

There’s a warm glow inside me knowing that, as I type this, a portion of the fee will be taken from me by the Inland Revenue to pay for someone else’s holiday. Actually it’s not a warm glow so much as a red hot rage. I’ve yet to see a sensible explanation of why the rest of us should be forced to put our hands in our pockets to pay for someone else’s bad luck on holiday.

It’s sad. It’s tough. It’s annoying. And it should be – unfortunately – expensive. If I was a victim of XL, I’d be mighty angry that I am not going to get home as planned. But I would not expect the rest of the country to pay for my journey. Just as good luck is not something we can expect as of right, so bad luck happens and we sometimes must suffer the consequences – especially when, as in this case, we are either too stupid or too cheapskate to take out holiday insurance to cover such an eventuality.

Hah! Yes! Or else not fly a “budget” airline because you’re too cheap to go to Turkey (Turkey!) on an airline that isn’t going to go bankrupt after a week’s operation!