The Good Old Days

As Uncle Albert, my Mum and numerous humourists on social media keep telling us, things ain’t what they used to be when we ate fresh veg, played outside all day and did as we were told.

I’d dare to argue that I do know I’m born, evidenced by the fact that I’m stood in front of the wise old owl telling me that I don’t .

“No wonder there’s a child obesity problem, no-one talks anymore and teenagers misbehave – there’s no discipline, everything is too easy and convenient, and millennials are layabouts."

Really?

If we’re all eating the wrong thing as we sit around watching TV and playing with game consoles and our mobile phones, and if the NHS has become so bad, how come we’re all living longer?

If millennials are all good-for-nothing layabouts with a poor attitude, and the education system has gone to pot, how come most of the ones I meet or work with are more sensible and certainly more aware and tolerant of diversity than my generation was at their age?

And what about the good old days of less financial regulation, when a trainee bank clerk could advise you to put your hard-earned savings into more volatile investments, you had to remember to have your 5 shillings ready on a Thursday night when the man from the Pru came knocking, and sorting out a car claim began with getting written quotes from at least two repairers and posting them to the insurance company?

To be honest, if asked whether things have changed for the better, in my view it’s a long answer!

In our insurance world, as with others, the speed of service has increased rapidly, but as companies get bigger, more centralised and thus more remote, it seems costs become prioritised over service levels, and they struggle to keep up with the raised level of expectancy we all have in these days of instant communication.

Similarly, we are bombarded with far more information, and it does get confusing. We’ve gone from days when your Dad might have been the first person to tell you about the birds, bees and home insurance, to multi-channel information on, well, everything.

So, when you see one of our tweets about the dangers of this, a Facebook post about the chance of that, or a Nova News article about the importance of the other, yes, we are hoping you will ask us about insurance, but we will only let you buy it if it is of benefit to you.

We call it Peace of Mind.