Joe Plumeri, the straight-talking American who is chairman and chief executive of Willis, received rapturous applause after his speech to the Insurance Institute of London this week. But Nick Prettejohn, Lloyd's chief executive, may not have been clapping quite as hard. Why? Earlier in the presentation, Plumeri had brought up a slide showing Lloyd's profits over recent years. He didn't have much to say about it other than: "The lines - they're going in the wrong direction," a reference to the previous years' losses. Prettejohn was last seen holding his head in his hands.

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