There’s been a lot of hot air blown recently around the elitist corridors of so-called media lately about how accusations of mental unwellness should not be idly bandied. That sort of PC World nonsense is all very well for militant vegan yoga virtue-signalists in Islington or wherever, but in the real world, thankfully, real men can still stand proudly tall and call out a spade when they see one.
And that is clearly the spirit in which insurer body the Association of Brush Insurers (ABI) this week branded Government plans to reduce the Ogden Rate (see previous story) from 2.5% to minus 0.75% as crazy! In case that didn’t state insurers’ case sufficiently plainly, an ABI spokesperson clarified its position by accusing Lady Chancellor Lizzy Truss of ‘idiocy’.
Anyone capable of distinguishing between hawks and hacksaws can immediately see that forcing insurers to pay 0.75% more than some ‘life-changing’ accident victim deserves in compensation rather than 2.5% less is going to cost someone a packet.
The idea that grievously injured persons are actually going to lose money on investing their winnings (or paying someone to keep it safe for them until they need it) is plainly bonkers, the ABI maintains. Unless, of course, Liz knows something we don’t about the future performance of the national and global economy.
Consultants PCw have predicted that decent ordinary motor insurance customers are going to have to fork out at least an extra £75 a head for their annual policies to make good insurers’ out-of-pocketness on this one, raising average premiums to around the £1000 mark. Younger drivers might have to pay as much as £1000 extra, pWC suggests: which is like totally retarded.
Being forced to apply a discount rate of 2.5% for several years when this looked distinctly optimistic has long been a source of embarrassment to insurers who had generously conceded that maybe 1.5% or even 1% might be more like it. But minus 0.75%? That just nuts, isn’t it. That’s just encouraging people to sustain life-changing injuries!
Disconcertingly, Liz Truss’ people have tacitly accepted today that she might be an idiot by agreeing to have another look at it. Maybe that minus 0.75% was actually meant to be plus 0.75%. Frankly, there’s a lot on at the moment, what with all this Brexit business and so on, and it’s hard keeping track of little details like that.
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