Gosh I am going to miss Harry and Meghan co-operating with the tabloids. Nothing else seems important right now.
Brussels doubt?
For those of you longing for far off days when all you had to do was worry about your new Belgian insurance venture, please find attached a rather helpful guide on the Belgian (re)insurance market from our friends at Steptoe.
Smashed it
Whilst various social media types have been trying to portray lockdown Britain as a haven of home cooking from scratch, bread baking and lust for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, data can never lie. Far from the cultured return to a simpler, healthier, fresher lifestyle the metropolitan elite craves, sales figures indicate that actually we have all been gorging on fake mashed potato and pot noodles. Forced to stay at home, Britain has just become an endless episode of the Young Ones. Although quite why we are not finding the room for some exceedingly good cakes is a bit of a mystery. Save for the fact that Mr Kipling was always a somewhat elusive and shady character and, thus, a bit creepy.
Lloyd’s Part VII
I wonder what parts 1-6 were about.
But news that Lloyd’s has today written (I think) to all your nominated Part VII reps to inform them that they will be writing to them twice in the near future. So, if your nominated rep is not working at the moment for whatever reason it may be worth ensuring their mailbox is monitored etc.
Youth hostelling with Chris Eubank
In case you are struggling to come to terms with life under lockdown, the nice people at BT Sport have produced a series of helpful aids. These include “How to use WhatsApp” with Clare Balding – presumably to allow you to hold embarrassing conversations with drunk South African sports parents. “How to download a podcast” with Rylan Clark Neal (spoiler alert, you have to find a podcast you are interested in and click on “download”). And the ultimate in monkey tennis, “Putting your business online” with Jake Humphrey. I’ve not watched it but presumably halfway through, Jake turns to Rio Ferdinand and asks “do you like what he’s done with the search function there?”
The final furlough
Today was the first day you could apply for the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to help with payments to furloughed staff. And those kind people at Morgan Lewis (formed by Morgan Freeman and Lewis Collins) have put together this handy guide to what to do in case you need it.
It’s only words, and words are all they have, to take the risk away
We are conscious that there is an increasing proliferation of model Covid-19 exclusion wordings in play in the market. And we are further aware of the unintended consequences many of you have seen in some of these wordings. We are currently collating these and seeking an acceptable method of providing this feedback that is consistent with competition law. We will bring you more detail on this as and when we can.
Web upgrade
Just a reminder that we now have a dedicated news item on our website pointing you at useful Covid-19 related information (and providing a back catalogue of this journal which may well expose the inconsistent numbering system…)
At least you’re not
There are many pitfalls to our new wfh normal. And I am sure some of you are finding it pretty challenging. But comfort yourself that you are not Melinda Meza.
Have a good evening.