Adrian wrote:

Neil Williams ) gurgled happily, sounding much like
they were saying :

Having a discussion in work on Friday a country was mentioned where
the basic third-party mandatory insurance for road vehicles was
provided by the state. We then went on to suggest the idea of having
this here, with the charge for insurance being on the price of petrol,
thus making it impossible to drive without insurance.

I think Aus and NZ do that - amongst others.

In Australia it's a state issue. South Australia has third party injury
insurance provided that way, but last time I checked, property insurance
was not part of the deal. However, there have been campaigns for it in
the past, so it may have changes since I last checked.

It's a part of the annual registration charge - akin to our tax disk, but
the plates themselves are issued by the authorities, and replaced every
year, closer to the model of the States.

No they aren't. Normal number plates (as opposed to custom number plates
which are more popular in Australia than in the UK) do not need
replacing regularly.

--
Aidan Stanger
http://www.bettercrossrail.co.uk