On a recent holiday I spent 10 days in a warm tropical climate melting away the effects of months of UK winter snow, howling gales and driving rain. Not only was the heat good for clearing my chronic case of Seasonal Affective Disorder, but the remote resort had no mobile signal. I was completely cut off.

Even if I had managed to smuggle the blackberry past my wife and into my case it wouldn’t have worked. My previously all singing all dancing iPhone was only good for playing ‘Flight Control’ and fighting off ‘Angry Birds’.

My only connection with events in the real world was a photocopied news bulletin delivered with breakfast. The selection of stories was entirely random. Important international events were overlooked in favour of a snippet on a Devon pensioner winning an egg and spoon race. Even relevant articles were so heavily edited into a two paragraph format that their accuracy was debateable.

I definitely didn’t believe the article that claimed that a portion of the Edinburgh Tram network would be running by the end of 2011. This was a newssheet not a science fiction fanzine!

But one that really caught my eye was news that the British Government was proposing making pet insurance for dogs compulsory.

With a protection gap of trillions, the Government thinks that pet insurance is more important than personal protection

I started ranting into my muesli. Here we are with a protection gap of trillions, and the Government thinks that pet insurance is more important than personal protection.

Of course the reality is that the Government was looking at liability insurance for injuries caused by dogs. Of those who already choose to insure their cats and dogs many are not insured themselves and already put fur above their own flesh and blood. And one of the ongoing challenges advisers face is convincing people of the importance of protecting their finances rather than pets and inanimate goods. After all a vet’s bill runs into hundreds. A lifetime of income earning lost would be catastrophic in comparison.

This mad idea has thankfully now been abandoned. And whilst I do not support the idea of State sponsored compulsory protection, we need to get to a place where people consider the implications of a loss of income due to serious illness or death.

Maybe a daily news sheet delivered to every breakfast table up and down the land would help to spread the message, but while that’s not realistic, we do need to raise awareness of financial protection. Better education as part of a financial curriculum for schools is definitely an initiative we should collectively get behind, but perhaps I should leave that till my next blog.