It's a cultural thing

It may be me just living in a fantasy land, or I was brought up a little strange, but part of the good manners ingrained in me was that if you made a mistake, you admitted it and apologised. Unfortunately owing to the previous governments allowing the way to no win no fee legal attempts getting some people or organisations to apologise is difficult. Add the politicians into the mix and it becomes possible to see a trend of only apologising when you have no choice and only as a last resort.
Express.

VICTIMS of poor service and shoddy goods are usually happy with just an apology, new research reveals.
The findings suggest that Britain’s greedy “compensation culture” may not be quite so rampant after all.
Far from demanding compensation, almost half of disgruntled customers say they would be satisfied with a simple “sorry”.
The study by the Ombudsman Services’ Consumer Action Monitor comes as figures show there were 38 million complaints about poor service and sub-standard goods last year.
Energy firms are the worst offenders, mainly due to bills and poor customer service. Complaints to power suppliers rocketed by 224 per cent between January and March this year compared to the same period in 2013 – the largest leap ever recorded.
Retail outlets and internet telecom giants are the next biggest offenders.
More than a third of customers polled think large firms are only interested in profit and do not care when things goes wrong.
Chief Ombudsman Lewis Shand Smith said: “The research shows that consumers just want to be treated fairly and this includes admitting fault where necessary. Sometimes a simple apology is all it takes.

Naturally with politicians, having a sorry dragged out of them Maria Miller style having stolen taxpayers funds even if paid back means they should go, that they don't speaks volumes about politicians. Yet at core I believe that for many when dealing with a mistake, an apology at the beginning would have settled things. Not everyone of course and sometimes things go way too far for an apology, but for minor mistakes, people aren't too bothered and simply want the company to play fair rather than obfuscate or deny.
We seem to have become a very much money oriented society, companies want our cash and people want cash back sometimes for the most minor of things, you only have to read the MSM to see some of the stupid things judges will allow a payout for.
Perhaps simply a demand that the company apologises whilst all costs are given to them if they are in the wrong would suffice...
Might stop some from persuing frivolous claims and get the company to apologise a lot more quickly.
As for politicians, well hanging is still far too god for a lot of them...