NU are not alone, Motor premiums have to rise. We are currently in a very "soft" insurance market, premiums have been dropping and dropping for several months - like Churchill etc guarnateing to beat any renewal figure. Prices cannot continue at the level they are now, with the insurers having any hope of making money.
The figures that NU band about are probably abit of a guestimate tbh, I would suspect by issuing press releases like that they are hoping to get the market in general to increase premiums.
And before you all start that insurers are making millions of £££, they are. But not through motor insurance, nearly all major motor insurers make a loss on motor insurance, a profit which the make back on other much more profitable insurances like home/life/heath etc.
As for paying for other peoples accidents, that is exactly what you are doing - thats how insurance works!! If it didn't work like this, if one day you have a claim - and you probably will at some point and the claim payout is £10k, then your premium next year would be £10k+. Not a good place to be.
Young driver premiums will continue to be stupid until we start to realise that we are not teaching people how to drive properly. And until we do something about it, young drivers will continue to crash, cost insurance companies lots, and lots of money, and premiums will continue to reflect this. IMO insurers should start to place more weight on advanced driver training. I would have personally been more than happy to spend £500-600 on advance driver training, if I received a worhtwhile insurance discount as a young driver - and therefore being able to insurer a quicker car for less money. But apart from the Pass Plus, there are no real recognised driving training options out there.
The Police are getting tougher on drivers without insurance, there's now a massive database up and running where the plod can check the insurance on a car on their computer from the comfort of their T5. But IMO the fines are still too low, they fine should be a minimum of the premium which you avoided paying. A £350 fine is no deterent if your premium should have been £1000.
Oh, and the £30 from everyones premium goes to fund the Motor Insurers Bureau (yes, they all wear black suits). So if your walking along and hit by an uninsured driver and cannot work for 6 months, you can make a claim against the MIB "pot" to which we all contribute. See:
www.mib.org.uk