The UK government has backed away from making insurance mandatory for mountaineers and hill walkers and the like. The RAF mountain rescue people say they are happy to do it, as it is valuable training.
I do think that the jibes about Richard Hammond being 'just' a journalist, a bit unfair. He's a journalist who drives for a living and writes about it, week after week we see him on TV driving faster cars than most of us could cope with, and in rough terrain too sometimes.
He is more of a professional driver than many weekend cowboys who race, rally, and drive dragsters in situations where there is often no more than a St John's Ambulance volunteer with a wee satchel in attendance.
I detect a wide streak of schadenfreude in many of the posts on this subject.
Giok