Moneynetmotorinsurancesearch After a mild winter, the number of motor accident claims has fallen by 30 per cent. “In theory, the drop will result in better financial results for insurers than were predicted when premium rates were set,” says Steve McPherson, the group sales and marketing director at Allen and Allen.”Hopefully, that will allow premiums, which have been rising by up to 30 per cent a year, to level off. Rates are already starting to stabilise and we hope this will help motorists in easing their insurance burdens.”But we still remain cautious because insurers continue to face a rise in the amount spent on claims, largely due to an increase in personal injury claims. The UK has developed a compen- sation culture and as a result the stakes have become much higher than they were five years ago.”Allen and Allen, which specialises in finding the best insurance coverage for young drivers, drivers of high-performance or modified cars and those with motoring convictions, suggests motor-ists should shop around for the best deal and use insurers who are “able to respond quickly to market fluctuations”.. The families of hundreds of thousands of soldiers wounded in the Second World War are being denied a possible £1bn tax windfall because of a change in the law. Moneynet The families of hundreds of thousands of soldiers wounded in the Second World War are being denied a possible £1bn tax windfall because of a change in the law.
Last month Major John Perry was told by the Ministry of Defence that he had been wrongly taxed on his disability pension, starting a search for other soldiers who have been paying tax on disability pensions for injuries on active service or in training.

The Army’s bureaucrats had failed to implement a provision of the 1952 Income and Corporation Taxes Act. That made pensions tax-free if granted “on account of medical unfitness attributable to or aggravated by naval, military or air force service”. The Royal Air Force and Royal Navy paid up, the Army did not.Dr Lewis Moonie, the Defence minister, admitted the MoD had no idea when the error began, and could date from the 1919 Finance Act. This week an MoD spokesman said that until the end of the 1939-45 war soldiers had to have completed 14 years’ service before they could qualify for a disability pension, which excludes most conscripts.Only 4,000 soldiers are likely to be eligible instead of the 240,000 wounded in the war, and the likely cost to the MoD is predicted to be £30m rather than £1bn. Anyone who thinks they may have a claim should contact the War Pensions Agency on 0800 169 2277..

When the Treasury announced plans to sell off a collection of 17th-century Whitehall silver last year, the clatter of disapproval was so loud that it was forced to think again. Far from being given the collection, a “lucky” museum or gallery might have to pay up to £100,000.Now, arts campaigners are demanding that the candlesticks, trays and wick-trimmers, made for the Privy Council in the reign of William of Orange, be handed over free. Arrangements are being made for a sale confined to institutions willing to display the items to the UK public.”A Treasury spokesman later denied that donating them had ever been an option.. In life, Douglas Adams was a perfectionist who would spend months agonising over the most minor plot detail, before allowing even his closest confidantes a glimpse of his prose. In life, he was a perfectionist who would spend months agonising over the most minor plot detail, before allowing even his closest confidantes a glimpse of his prose.
Yet, nearly a year after Douglas Adams died suddenly while in the throes of writer’s block, his publishers are preparing to do what he would never have dreamt of himself: release a rough draft of one of his books.The Salmon of Doubt, the incomplete final novel by The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy author, will be published in May.

The 90-page fragment, chronicling the third adventure of “holistic detective” Dirk Gently, will be accompanied by 35 other pieces, ranging from a short story, “The Private Life of Genghis Khan”, to an account of how Adams broke his nose on his own knee while playing rugby.While fans of the writer have greeted news of the book with enthusiasm, it is not likely to be universally welcomed. Industry observers have criticised the publisher, Macmillan, for bowing to commercial pressure, while fellow scribes have questioned the fairness of printing an unfinished work by a notorious stickler. J G Ballard, whose novels include Crash, Cocaine Nights and Empire of the Sun, said incomplete books did a writer’s legacy a disservice.”There’s a lot of magic involved in writing a novel … Cobbling together a first draft that would have been subject to a huge number of further drafts and revisions is a bit like turning the novelist into a second-rate conjuror.”Nancy Sladek, editor of the Literary Review, said: “It’s questionable whether they should publish it It’s not a finished book. From what we know about Douglas Adams, he wouldn’t have been happy with a half-finished novel being published in his name.”Critic and academic Sir Frank Kermode said: “If there’s a presumption that what they’ve come up with is not something in the form the author would have wanted to be published, there is an argument against doing it.”A spokeswoman for Macmillan said the book was compiled with the approval of his friends and family. “Everyone took into account the express wishes of the people closest to Douglas, his wife, his mother and his agent, Ed Victor,” she said “We did not ask for this book It was the idea of his agent.”.