A European Court of some variety has ordered that setting car insurance rates according to gender is now unlawful, meaning cheaper car insurance for woman will become a thing of the past.
Naturally the Tories are up in arms, finding themselves in the rare position of being on the side of women, something they weren’t when they voted against measures to tackle sex trafficking a few months ago.
The headline of this post is from one of the Tory MEPs, which kinda sums up the slightly surreal nature of the debate – of all the groups the European Courts have found in favour of, allegedly it’s ‘boy racers’. And if it’s a blow for careful women drivers, what is it for un-careful women drivers? Surely it is a blow for them as they will no longer be subsidised by careful male drivers?
In all honesty I can understand the frustrations of the insurance companies on this one – should we be amending the law to ignore genetic differences when statistically it is provable there are indeed inherent differences in the way men and women drive?
I’m not sure it’s a totally wise idea myself, as it plays to the idea that we are all the same with no inherent genetic differences, something that’s not really true and will only be proven as such over time and due to an unwillingness to engage with that fact from well-meaning sections of the commentariat will allow these differences to be taken and manipulated by people and groups with far more insidious motives.
That might be a lot of read behind a judgement on car insurance I accept, however the thinking behind it can have quite far reaching consequences.
