Regular readers will doubtless recollect some of the many memorable occasions on which Bankstone News has previously alluded to the Bane of Vnuk.
Such readers may also recall that, due to some bloke called Vnuk getting knocked off a ladder by a farm vehicle, the EU facist superstate (in one of its most loathsome incarnations as the so-called ECJ) has decreed that all vehicles everywhere (even those not on public highways) must be insured, in case they damage someone or something.
If this latest instance of Euro-nonsense is allowed to stand, it could spell the end of motorsports of all kinds in the UK (and other EU countries presumably). Which would be an absolute vnuking catastrophe.
Thankfully, a champion has arisen to defy this threat, That champion is the Motor Cycle Industries Association (MCIA) a body of which Bankstone is proud to count itself a ‘member’. For it were they, the MCIA, who bluntly warned this week that:
“All motor and motorcycle sport vehicles and drivers/riders in the UK are now required to be covered by unlimited third-party motor insurance during competition.”
Clearly this cannot, should not and indeed must not happen. Just imagine the premiums! So the MCIA is lobbying with all its might for changes to the Motor Insurance Directive that would prevent this crazy legislation putting paid to motorsports of every conceivable kind and shape within the UK for the foreseeable future.
Insurers across Europe are virtually unanimous in declining to offer any such coverage. In Finland, one of the few countries ‘bold and imaginative’ enough to try it, premiums for younger competitive motorcyclists quickly rose to €29,000 per annum, significantly cooling demand.
Thus far, stalwart Brit lawmakers have resisted implementing Vnuk. But might their resolution falter? It’s not inconceivable. Because, if they don’t, the government could get sued for damages resulting from non-implementation.
Shockingly, even Brexit may not save us from Vnuk. Not only are we stuck in the EU until March 2019, but we could well still be in the single market or abiding by its rules or something for another two years after that, as we ‘transition’.
Even after that, we might still have to harmonise with EU insurance law as part of some form of ‘mutual recognition’ required to continue doing insurance business with our continental “cousins”.
That’s it then. We’re b*ggered, you’re probably thinking, in your habitually uncouth way. Well, maybe, just maybe, not!
The Evil European Commission belatedly cottoned on to the fact that its ludicrous Vnuk legislation would have “unintended consequences” and launched a consultation entitled REFIT.
MCIA was one of a number of organisations who responded, explaining how the law as proposed would whack a dirty great spanner in the wheels of motorsport (you can see all the responses here).
Will those tyrannical Eurocrats finally listen to sense? Or will it be bendy bananas all over again?
Watch this space!
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