The Backchat Insider muses about the latest ‘celeb’ to follow in the footsteps of Beckham and Dylan and get the tools of his trade covered … as opposed to uncovered

Can’t hold a candle to her
I met up with my old chum Wayne Tonge of Keelan Westall last week. Wayne was in high spirits about the annual Barbon awards ceremony, or ‘Boscas’, which took place at Madame Tussauds on Friday night. At the same event last year, Martin Oliver and Wayne made a beeline for the waxwork of Cheryl Cole, where the cheeky Barbon duo posed for photographs. A waxwork of Rhianna has been added since last year’s Boscas – I wonder if the boys were tempted …

Insuring the family jewels
If you mention Lloyd’s of London to the average British citizen, if they know it at all it will be as the insurer of various celebrity body parts. David Beckham’s legs, Bob Dylan’s vocal cords, Ken Dodd’s teeth and now a British adult film star’s manhood. Keiran Lee has insured his tools of the trade for $1m (£638,250), an amused Lloyd’s underwriter informed me recently.

Juggling several balls
What is it about insurance bosses and football? The latest link I’m hearing is that iGO4 executive director Tom Cooper used to be the football manager of a non-league outfit and still helps out with his local club. Meanwhile, it looks like Manchester Underwriting Management boss Charles Manchester made a wise decision to save his local club Chesham United from bankruptcy five years ago. They were promoted to the Southern League last season, and are now flying high in fifth position.

Government grounded
I’m a man with good contacts in the corridors of power, and you’d be amazed how often I hear complaints about car insurance from my parliamentary chums. Sally Bercow, the speaker’s wife, has apparently been having difficulty insuring her car because she routinely parks it at the House of Commons rather than at her house. Former Tory MP Ann Widdecombe had similar trouble a few years ago when LV= hiked her premium for doing the same thing.

A World Cup of Joe
Liberty Syndicates are taking their sponsorship of the 2014 Brazilian World Cup very seriously. To mark the occasion, the insurer is considering replacing the coffee areas in its branches with indoor football areas, where underwriters and brokers can kick a ball about as they talk business. Apparently Liberty’s manager of Latin America operations, Florian Kummer, is a big fan of the idea.

Where will Ellis resurface?
Once upon a time Broker Network non-executive chairman Grant Ellis was everywhere, speaking up for brokers and fighting their causes. But he seems to have gone very quiet of late, and few in the industry have heard much from him. Talk is that he’s spending a lot of his time in property development. I wonder if he might surface once again for this year’s Biba 2012 conference. I’ll be keeping my eyes out for him.

The only way is Essex
Those of you who imagine equity analysts as dour number-crunchers should probably think again, especially when it comes to Panmure Gordon analyst Barrie Cornes. The self-confessed petrol head has a small collection of Lotuses. His pride and joy is an ‘Essex’ Esprit, which apparently was used to model the virtual version of said model featured in the Xbox 360 racing game Forza Motorsport 4. Always preferred Bentleys myself, but each to his own.

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