Been having a look at the discussion on this topic, a lot people think that's it's ok to go thro a amber light and yes you see hundreds if not thousands of people do it and it never leads to a road traffic incident.
However in the Highway Code it does state- " AMBER means ' STOP' at the stop line you may go on only if the Amber appears after you have crossed the stop line or are so close to it that to pull up might cause an accident".
Accelerating hard towards a traffic light is never a good idea as it increases your braking distances and hence reduces your ability to stop at the line . I did run a amber light l on my HGV class 2 driving test, however I was about a couple of vehicle lengths from the stop line with another LGV directly behind me, I passed the test with no comment from the examiner.