Lord Young’s heartfelt advocacy of a ban on claims management companies advertising their services to consumers has failed to sway the UK’s pragmatical coalition government.
Following the lead of the Guardian, Insurance Times suggests one explanation may be that David Cameron used to work in commercial television.
It is indeed true that Cameron – who once famously sprained his ankle while dancing to bagpipes in Rome and whose ankle tattoo-sporting wife used to play pool with Wild Bunch member Tricky – spent seven years during the 90s working as Head of Corporate Communications for Carlton TV, where he was described as “poisonous and slippery” by The Sun’s Ian King and as someone who “never gave a straight answer” by the Telegraph’s Jeff Randall. But other factors may also have affected the government decision not to ban advertisements asking ‘Had an accident?’
Bodies like the Legal Services Board do not appear to share Young’s distaste for ambulance chasing.
Like the songs of blue-collar rebels The Clash, best known for Hooray Henry singalongs Should I Stay or Should I Go and Rock the Casbah, claims management companies’ ads do not apparently harm consumers but simply help them know their rights.
