Alexander Ferguson writes:
Only days into hijack talks between Somalian pirates and the owners of the stricken supertanker The Sirius Star, one very quick (it has to be said) broker (Benfield, cough! cough!) is offering "a dedicated and exclusive kidnap and ransom policy" with a $10m per event limit, indemifying the policyholder against kidnapping and extortion, lost ransom, and costs incurred resolving the situation.
Couldn't you have offered this at the start of the year, lads?
But if the money comes in, methinks that the new people at Beano (that's an anagram of Aon Benfield Re, according to City wit Roger Foord (nope, he doesn't know why his last name is spelt like that, either!) will be saying: "Better late than never".
