A European court has ruled that it is discriminatory for insurance companies to set a premium for car insurance based on gender. The result is that many women under 25 who are less likely to have an accident than their male counterparts will pay more.
I wonder who made the complaint in the first place. I, for one, am glad that my other half pays less car insurance. It means that it is cheaper for her to run her car meaning that I am more likely to get a lift home when I have been out drinking.
The court ruling is ridiculous. Insurance is a business of calculating risk based on historic fact. We are told that insurers will need to place more emphasis on age and postcode. How long before the ageist lobby come out and make a complaint?
What about life assurance? Women live longer than men - fact. The insurance company are likely to collect more premiums from a woman before she croaks than from a man, so they do not need to charge as much each month. Will this become illegal as well?
I remember the days when we thought that rulings from Europe were funny. They were about the shape of bananas and when you can use the words "Melton Mowbray" before "pork pie". But now it is becoming very serious indeed. The handcuffs, or Eurocuffs, that they are placing on companies such as the insurers is prohibitive to effective competition and trade. One size cannot fit all.
The company Sheila's Wheels is about giving cheaper car insurance to women. Now that Sheila is in Eurocuffs (pink fluffy ones, if the image on the advertisements is to be believed), is Sheila about to go down? OK, we would be spared the faux Aussie TV commercials but that would be the only benefit.
It is about time that our Government took a stance against such idiocy from Europe. Plenty has been written recently regarding the deliberations of the European Court of Human Rights for whom the criminal is king and becomes the victim.
What will Mr. Cameron do? I suspect nothing for now. He will let these Eurocourts carry on spewing out nonsense until the next election, which he will then fight on a mandate of withdrawing from these judicial theatres. That will separate him nicely from the policies of little Nicky Clegg and enable him to seek a clear majority in the next parliament.
Oo are yer?
- MoobianPrince
- London, England, United Kingdom
- Moobian Prince is the alter ego of a British bloke. He is not Moobian and he is not a Prince. He has to be circumspect about his identity so as not to piss off the hand that feeds him! The alias also enables frank and honest views. He truly loves the world we live in but often finds the way we run it to be jaw-droppingly incredulous. He hates injustice and downright stupidity - even, on occasions, his own.
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