Pass the smelling salts!

I am in utter shock...........................

I have just gone through getting half a dozen quotes for insurance for The Boy, so that he can make use of the car that he has now owned for 9 months, and has waited so patiently to drive.

I cannot believe the figures that are flashing up before my eyes.

Thus far, I have prices ranging from £1,779.000 to £3,542.00!! I mean they throw in a courtesy car for this last astronomical sum of money, but I'd want the lad chauffeured around with a back seat full of bee-hutches for that kind of dosh!

This is no fancy car we are talking about here; it's an 8 year old, 1000cc Polo. Tidy, but no modifications, no fat wheels or window shaking exhausts.

In fact, up until I got the Smart, it was his mum's car!!

While I realise that there has to be some kind of balance applied for the group of drivers that we are told cause the most problems, there are quite literally tens of thousands of young men out there, who simply want to get from A to B in the same manner the rest of us do.

I really think it is an unnecessary discrimination, that apparently does not work as any kind of detterrent to those who would speed around the streets like fucking maniacs, as they are still the ones apparently causing the problems.
I see many young men in the sixth form, going to the local boys school in their cars, and it seems to me that they are doing ok with the whole responsibility of it all.

Surely the kind of person you are should play it's part in this matter.

I think it's highly telling and very relevant if a young man is working or still studying at school, or is unemployed and not in education, if he is part of clubs or sports teams, whether he has a criminal record or not.

We're all given statistics to dwell on about what makes a person more likely to be a good citizen and what doesn't, so why can this not apply to the simple process of learning to drive?

I'm not saying it should be simple to get a no claims bonus; that should be hard earned. But it's ridiculous and really very unfair to put up this exclusion before a chap gets to even try to prove himself.

Ok. Plan B.