BRAVE British troops under fire should be able to take comfort in the certainty that even if they suffer life-changing injuries they and their loved-ones will be well looked after.

The MoD-backed PAX insurance scheme which our forces are aggressively sold is meant to provide that lifeline.

It is shocking to discover that so often it doesn’t. And that, like so many insurers, it seeks any excuse to delay and cut payouts to a fraction of what our heroes deserve.

Their stories make shocking reading: The Special Forces hero offered just £15,000 by PAX underwriters AIG over his ruined leg, only to be awarded ten times that after suing.

Or the injured serviceman who had to fight for seven years to double his derisory payout.

Wounded veterans should never have to endure such added torment. Their return from the frontline should not mark the start of some traumatic new battle with insurers to whom they ­dutifully paid thousands in premiums.

These are men and women with serious physical and/or mental injuries and often with families to support. Assessors treat them like they pranged a car.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace must sort this out. Forces’ morale is bad enough without them being betrayed by cold-hearted penny-pinchers at an insurance company.

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Wave goodbye

OMICRON is steadily being beaten back, in Britain at least.

The mild but super-catchy wave looks like it peaked days ago.

New infections were down to 99,652 yesterday. Still high, but the lowest since before Christmas.

That is a testament to the speed the boosters were rolled out. And England, remember, stayed open. Other nations across Europe are faring far worse despite draconian curbs.

Barring a more deadly new variant we are surely on course for a final exit from this two-year nightmare in short order.

Let’s first allow kids to ditch masks in class.

The evidence for imposing them was thin anyway, with more than a suspicion it was a ploy to appease the teaching unions.

Despite the usual doomy predictions, Omicron is a far lower threat than past strains and will not overwhelm the NHS.

Let’s hear a firm plan for returning to normality in full.

Boom or bust

THE defiant resilience of our economy during the pandemic has been staggering.

In November it bounced back to above pre-Covid levels. Omicron and “Plan B” have depressed it since, but growth will surge again now the wave is in retreat.

Is the Government still sure it wants to jeopardise that with a tax rise in April, when prices and bills are already soaring?

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