Corporate waffle

I refer to your article (12 September, Insurance Times) reporting the comments by Simon Machell of Norwich Union (NU).

On the one hand Machell states that the corporate aim is "providing a good service". He accepts "the service we offer isn't up to the standard we wanted it to be ..." and then goes on to explain how NU is going to reduce the current staffing levels by 700.

Were NU dedicated to providing a good service, it would not immediately reduce staffing levels as this can only jeopardise the already sub-standard service admitted above. It is clear that NU's main objective is to reduce its operating expenses rather than provide service.

Furthermore, I am somewhat disappointed by your willingness to produce an article that purely regurgitates the non-coherent corporate waffle, which when read, is so riddled with illogicality it should have provoked a challenge by your reporting staff. It would be better to let insurers continue to bury us with their "good news" imparted in their own bulletins, rather than using Insurance Times to apparently give credence to their "news" which is often questionable in content.

Stuart Leitch
Stuart & Stuart
Beaconsfield

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