Prevalence of potential risk factors in victims of electrocution.

OBJECTIVE: To identify risk factors of fatal arrhythmia following electrical shock, by comparing the prevalence of transthoracic current, tetany, decreased skin resistance because of wet extremities, skin burns and heart disease in victims of electrocution with instant as opposed to delayed death. DESIGN: Retrospective case-control study, based on the charts from the coroner's office. RESULTS: A total of 124 deaths from electrocution occurred between 1987 and 1992. One victim presumably died from delayed arrhythmia and was excluded from the study. Twenty victims had decreased skin resistance because of wet extremities and five had tetany. Autopsy revealed coronary heart disease in 21 cases, and burns in 109; 10 did not have any skin lesion. There was no difference in risk factors between those who died instantly presumably from arrhythmia (n=114) and those who died later from other causes (n=9). CONCLUSION: No differences in risk factors were found between victims who died immediately from arrhythmia following electrical shock and those died later from other causes.     

The UK's Prudential Borrowing Framework: Professional Discipline and Control

Since 2004, governance and accountability arrangements for UK local government borrowing under the new Prudential Borrowing Framework (PBF) have been based on the professional discipline and control model of governance. It supplements the earlier centralised discipline and control model whereby municipal borrowing had to be specifically approved by central government and provides an alternative to Private Finance Initiatives (PFIs) and Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) for capital procurement. Incorporating a case study of the use of PBF by Glasgow City Council, this paper considers the strengths and weaknesses of the PBF as a control mechanism for borrowing.     

Coping with the Cuts? The Management of the Worst Financial Settlement in Living Memory

The scale of the cuts to local government finance, coupled with increasing demand for services, has led to unprecedented ‘budget gaps’ in council budgets. Arguably, two competing narratives of the trajectory of local government have emerged in which contrasting futures are imagined for the sector – a positive story of adaptation and survival and more negative one of residualisation and marginalisation. Drawing on case study evidence from three English local authorities, the paper distinguishes and provides examples of three strategic approaches to managing austerity – efficiency, retrenchment and investment. It demonstrates how and why the balance of these strategies has shifted between the early and later phases of austerity and considers the extent to which the evidence of the case studies provide support for either the survival or marginalisation narrative. The paper concludes by arguing that a third narrative – responsibilisation – captures more fully the trajectory of local government in England.     

Symposium Introduction: Local Responses to ‘Austerity’

This introduction to the symposium sets out the context for local government in the United Kingdom at the current time. It outlines the scale of the reductions in funding since 2010, showing how uneven these cuts have been across the country and the reasons for this. It also describes the increased exposure to risk of both local government and of the citizens and communities it serves. The central question for the papers which follow is how local government is responding to these twin challenges. The papers provide insights from a number of detailed studies of individual authorities, exploring the strategies adopted to manage in response. The analyses focus on the distributive consequences for individuals and communities, but they also reflect on the wider consequences for local government itself. A particular concern is whether local responses are changing as austerity moves from its initial to its later phase.     

Marriage Law and Practice in the Long Eighteenth Century: A Reassessment

Lord Atkin. Geoffrey Lewis. London. 1983. Butterworths. xi + 248 pp. (incl. index). £14.95.

Law and Social Change in British History: Papers presented to the British Legal History Conference, 14–17 July 1981. Ed. J.A. Guy and H.G. Beale. London. 1984. Royal Historical Society. xiii + 194 pp. (incl. Index). £20.80.

Gentlemen and Poachers: The English Game Laws 1671–1831. P.B. Munsche, Cambridge. 1981. Cambridge University Press. x &; 255 pp. £18.50.