Surge in Armed Forces compensation for hearing damage

Time was (let's say up until the 1960s) when the British Army advertised that its recruits should think about joining for a "real man's life". In line with stock military mores, anyone suggesting that it might be a career bet for a "deaf person's life", or anyone complaining about those noisy guns, would have been shouted down in wroth sergeant major tones and, in civil life, typified as a simpering nitwit, the Charles Hawtrey figure who wouldn't know which way up to hold his rifle in a Carry On film about conscripts. The MoD, then, must be recoiling from the discovery that it is now subject to compensation culture, or that it might failing to control avoidable damage. The activities of the MoD include involved employees in bloody, noisy battles, and less bloody but equally noisy training. All this can be extremely damaging to participants' hearing. Research confirms that combatants...