From: max_demian@bigfoot.com 
  
 On 04/08/2025 14:24, Roger Hayter wrote: 
 > On 4 Aug 2025 at 12:52:34 BST, "Max Demian"  wrote: 
 > 
 >> On 03/08/2025 22:31, Jeff Layman wrote: 
 >>> On 03/08/2025 20:33, Mark Goodge wrote: 
 >> 
 >>>> I'm aware that, in some circumstances, giving bad advice can amount to 
 >>>> professional negligence. But what if the person giving the advice is 
 >>>> not, in 
 >>>> any sense, a professional in that field? Can they, too, be liable if 
 >>>> their 
 >>>> advice causes demonstrable loss to the person taking, and acting on, 
 >>>> their 
 >>>> advice? 
 >>> 
 >>> Would it not depend to a large extent on whether or not they are trying 
 >>> to pass themselves off as a professional? Following the advice of 
 >>> someone carrying an electricians toolkit to connect the brown wire to 
 >>> the neutral connection, the blue wire to the live connection, and leave 
 >>> the earth wire disconnected, would have a different connotation to 
 >>> someone dressed as a multicoloured chicken giving the same advice. 
 >> 
 >> Electricians aren't "official" in the way that gas fitters are. Anyone 
 >> can call himself an electrician. 
 > 
 > That is simply untrue. Indeed, the rules for significant electrical work 
 are 
 > more restrictive than for gas work - you can't sign it off yourself even if 
 > you are competent. 
  
 But they can call themselves "electricians". 
  
 (Originally, "electricians" were people who put on performances such as 
 this: https://wellcomecollection.org/stories/charged-bodies ) 
  
 -- 
 Max Demian 
  
 --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05 
  * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)