Penny Black's Insurance Week - 27 February 2014

She once addressed a man named Richard as Rob, and there was no end to the blushing. She has never, however, got her own name wrong, and certainly not in a context where formality is key. For example, if a firm was submitting its response to the Competition Commission’s provisional findings in an investigation into motor insurance, it would be terribly embarrassing to misspell its own name. That would surely cause much laughter, wouldn’t it, Go Comapre [sic]?

Meanwhile, being a traditional type, Penny’s New Year celebrations consisted chiefly of staying inside with a bottle of gin, curtains closed and weeping to Eleanor Rigby on loop. However, some were more adventurous, and Penny was most impressed to hear that Gallagher Bassett’s client services boss Keith Savill had spent the night in Munich’s Marienplatz. Festivities in the Bavarian capital seemed to focus largely on crowds of people throwing fireworks at each other. “They were having a great time,” Savill told Penny. “And here we are barely even allowed to hold a sparkler!”           

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