Retired at 40, Vice President. Unretired at 42. Lloyd’s of London market. Previous Gov, software, charity. No rudeness or FBPE please. Lloyd’s chap and proud.
London & Deal
Joined November 2007
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"Rob, it's raining, we're all here, are you seriously going to make us all traipse to Lloyd's to have this meeting?".
Honestly, I don't know why I get asked such obvious questions sometimes. 😉
If you go out and earn more than £12,570, you get taxed.
But if you receive £12,570 in benefits, they'll lift the tax free allowance so you don't have to pay tax.
It just makes zero sense. Either that's the minimum you need to live, hence it's not taxed, or it isn't.
The budget for HS2 has trebled to over £100billion.
It's also halved in length, so effectively it's £200billion km for km.
If only the private sector could match this phenomenal growth rate.
Rob (No FBPE or nastiness/rudeness please) retweeted
DID YOU KNOW
There are cutting-edge cancer treatments available to patients and saving lives in the UK today, that are only available thanks to Brexit.
There are quite literally people alive today, thanks to the freedoms that Brexit bought.
gov.uk/government/news/nhs-r…
Professor of Economics.
While this news should be treated as good news, the FBPE brigade will lament it- they would rather the country suffered than have to admit they were wrong.
Imagine how fragile your self worth must be to prefer that outcome.
This week's Sunday Nonsense to my team is about a cow named blossom, Chris Witty's clicker, and possibly something to do with how insurance helped end the pandemic.
underwrittenweekly.com/2026/…
His reason for not calling a general election (which he criticised Sunak for not doing) when he took over was that he was going to follow the Labour 2024 manifesto, which ruled out a return of free movement, single market membership or a customs union.
Now he says he wants a discussion.
Either he's about to break his commitment and be shown to be a liar or he's going to discuss something he's ruled out.
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8e3…
It’s an afterthought to them because none of them have ever worked in the private sector- let alone actually started a business to understand how impossibly difficult the gov make it.
Gov is borrowing to fund a “national wealth fund”
You’ve got to be a bit silly to think that’s a solid idea.
You borrow £15bn, meaning you’ll saddle yourself with interest payments of £22.5bn (plus the original £15bn needs repaying), and you haven’t created a wealth at all
If you were in a meeting and you asked somebody if they wanted to discuss something that had clearly already been decided, and they replied “there are no mountains in Holland”, how would you interpret that??
Trying to work out if I was being too subtle or they missed the obvious
So if you earn just £17 a day more than the average earner (after tax), you're paying the higher rate of tax.
Goodness grief this country doesn't reward work does it.
Maths for the illiterate twitterarti who will say I'm wrong without presenting any evidence as to why.
£811.20 a week: £42,182
Higher rate is £50,000 - shortfall of £7,818.
If you earn £7,181 you'll keep £6,254
Divide £6,254/365 = £17.13/day
Or £120 a week.
Latest from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2026.
Median pay for full-time employees was £811.20 per week in April 2026, up 5.8% on the year in nominal terms and 2.7% in real terms (adjusted for inflation using CPIH).
Read more ➡️ ons.gov.uk/releases/employee…
ALT Chart showing median weekly earnings for full-time, part-time and all employee jobs continued increasing in April 2026.
This will cost FIFTEEN BILLION POUNDS over 5 years.
Or people could take responsibility and have a salad every now and then.
1/3rd of the year off. Now a further 20% reduction in the time they do work.
I know it's MPs who get the long summer recess off, and a free second home who are proposing this.
But do they understand ANYTHING of the private sector, how it works, and that it pays their wages?
Schools will still provide lessons five days a week but an independent pay review body has been asked to consider how to scrap the requirement for individual full-time teachers to be available for work on 195 days a year
Story: thetimes.com/uk/education/ar…
The SwissRe building (where I was once a Vice President), from the Lloyd’s building.
While both venerable insurance institutions in their own right, they actually don’t interact.
SwissRe operates in the company market, where Lloyd’s is the heart of the London market.
The difference, you didn’t ask?
In the company market you deal directly where companies take whole risk. Where as in the London/Lloyd’s market syndicates (insurance companies) club together to accept complex risk. One syndicate might take 5% of a risk, another 10% - this allows the most expensive, and complex risk, to be written.
