I read today that sometime last year the UK government made it compulsory for all motor insurance companies to register their policies with a central database. This is to enable the police to more-effectively catch uninsured drivers. Police cars are fitted with number plate recognition cameras and the car is then automatically checked to see if the driver is insured.
However, this has raised some problems. It's standard on UK motor insurance policies for the insured person to be covered to drive another person's car so long as permission has been given. That clause has been a Godsend in many situations. For instance, a family with 2 cars. If the wife's car breaks down, she can use the husband's to do the shopping, take the kids to school, or whatever. I myself have borrowed friends' cars for certain things. I remember having to collect a flat-pack wardrobe unit that wouldn't fit in my car. I borrowed a friend's Volvo estate car to collect it. The problem is that if you're driving someone else's car on your own insurance, the car may show up as uninsured on the police computer. So, what has our wonderful government concocted as a solution? They want to stop it, that's what.
The government has set up a consultation process. A lot of insurance companies have gone along with the idea straight away, others are reviewing the situation, and a few have said no to it - or, at least, no for the time being. But that's all a charade. They will all go along with it eventually; they won't have any choice. This government has shown on many occasions that if the results of consultations go against what they want, they will just introduce a new law to force it through.
But what I find most worrying about all of this is that none of it has been made public. I read the papers every day, I watch all the news programs on TV, I get news feeds daily on my PC from various sources. I have seen not 1 single mention of this anywhere. That makes me wonder - how many other new databases have the government created without telling us? What else do the police have access to that we haven't been informed of? I'm not 1 of these conspiracy theorists, but the rate at which the Blair administration is increasing its surveillance of the public is frightening.
However, this has raised some problems. It's standard on UK motor insurance policies for the insured person to be covered to drive another person's car so long as permission has been given. That clause has been a Godsend in many situations. For instance, a family with 2 cars. If the wife's car breaks down, she can use the husband's to do the shopping, take the kids to school, or whatever. I myself have borrowed friends' cars for certain things. I remember having to collect a flat-pack wardrobe unit that wouldn't fit in my car. I borrowed a friend's Volvo estate car to collect it. The problem is that if you're driving someone else's car on your own insurance, the car may show up as uninsured on the police computer. So, what has our wonderful government concocted as a solution? They want to stop it, that's what.
The government has set up a consultation process. A lot of insurance companies have gone along with the idea straight away, others are reviewing the situation, and a few have said no to it - or, at least, no for the time being. But that's all a charade. They will all go along with it eventually; they won't have any choice. This government has shown on many occasions that if the results of consultations go against what they want, they will just introduce a new law to force it through.
But what I find most worrying about all of this is that none of it has been made public. I read the papers every day, I watch all the news programs on TV, I get news feeds daily on my PC from various sources. I have seen not 1 single mention of this anywhere. That makes me wonder - how many other new databases have the government created without telling us? What else do the police have access to that we haven't been informed of? I'm not 1 of these conspiracy theorists, but the rate at which the Blair administration is increasing its surveillance of the public is frightening.
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