Editor's comment: A call to arms - for some

Yes, last week’s insurance love-in - sorry, summit - with PM David Cameron appears to have been a case of insurers in, others out.

And if you are an insurer it was all the better for it, based on subsequent conversations with two of those privileged to have been invited.

Axa UK & Ireland CEO Paul Evans admitted he had been involved in a lot of lobbying in his time, but had rarely seen something conclude so productively: “By the end of the meeting there was nothing left on the table and on every point we raised [the PM] designated a minister to take responsibility for taking on the issue.”

It was thus no surprise he concluded that the biggest impact on the compensation culture could, ultimately, come out of the hour-long powwow.

Meanwhile Zurich’s UK CEO Stephen Lewis added: “It was a constructive meeting and a real recognition that to drive required changes in the market needs a collective working approach where the insurance industry and the government commit to act.”

While the British Insurance Brokers’ Association took the lack of invite in its stride, the snub was subject to a lot of comment and discussion at the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers president’s lunch last Thursday, and the Law Society is not happy either.

It is easy to reach agreements when you have a pack of nodding dogs around a table, as Cameron illustrated by excluding major organisations including the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Nursing from the Downing Street summit on the NHS reforms.

And therein lies the rub. Will the good work in attempting to build bridges between claimant and defendant sides be set back by any triumphalism here? Can the government and insurance industry succeed in their aims of reducing premiums without involving the wider interests so entwined in the sector? And finally, will the proposals ultimately have more bark than bite, because in being exclusive rather than inclusive, they fail to have the necessary holistic buy in?

As to whether the mood from the insurance industry summit on 14 February 2012 will spread to the impending issue of the renewal of the Statement of Principles, unfortunately I suspect Cameron will have tossed away the Valentine’s cards and break its heart when those discussions resurface.