I have recently received my car insurance renewal and was surprised to find that it’s risen by over 56 per cent. As you might imagine my domestic vehicle covers very few miles a year, and I’ve many years no claim bonus. So, like many, I asked a small South African mongoose to find me a cheaper deal. Curiously the ‘cheapest’ listed of any insurance company I’ve heard of was Churchill, the very one I’m with, but at nearly £18 dearer (that pays for the adverts and cheap cinema tickets). So what are the reasons given by insurers to justify increasing premiums? The excuses are many and varied to fleece you: Increase in vehicle claims; Increase in stolen vehicles; Parts are more expensive to order due to backlog; Parts are taking longer to order due to backlog, subsequently, customers are in courtesy cars for longer which costs insurance companies more; Cars are generally more expensive (both new and used); Insurers paid out more than they took in last year. So there you have it, since covid, when we all didn’t drive and stayed at home, costs have gone up.
Johnson’s London Dictionary: Twenty miles per hour
TWENTY MILES PER HOUR (n.) Imposition upon our sedan chairs said to much given advice at saving the populace.
Dr. Johnson’s London Dictionary for publick consumption in the twenty-first century avail yourself on Twitter @JohnsonsLondon
Royal anniversary
Today marks two significant royal anniversaries, so those of you with a Republican bent, look away now.
First His Majesty was born in Buckingham Palace exactly 75 years ago. Summer that year had been exceptionally warm, at Kew a maximum of 93°F on 28th July was recorded, with a minimum of 70°F on the following night, these were the highest on record for a July in 78 years of observations.
But for our day in question, 14th November 1973, it had a high recorded of only 62°F, with a low of 44°F, but luckily only 0.4 inches of rain fell when nearly 2 inches fell the next day.
So what happened in London 50 years ago today? Charles celebrated his 25th birthday whilst attending the marriage of his sister Anne to Mark Phillips at Westminster Abbey.
This day also saw some other ‘firsts’. Anne was the first of Her Majesty’s children to wed, and to a ‘commoner’, an unusual choice in those days.
The wedding had another first, being the first Royal wedding to be televised.
Five months later on 20th March 1974, on Constitution Hill, Anne was nearly kidnapped when armed unemployed labourer Ian Ball attacked the car in which she was riding, wounding her bodyguard and the chauffeur. This was not a first as the same short stretch of road had seen previous attacks upon royalty.
London in Quotations: Julia Gregson
One of the things she most liked about the city -apart from all its obvious attractions, the theatre, the galleries, the exhilarating walks by the river- was that so few people ever asked you personal questions.
Julia Gregson (b.1947)
London Trivia: Quids In
On 12 November 1984 Chancellor Nigel Lawson in his autumn statement to Parliament declared the £1 note – popularly known as a ‘quid’ – would be phased out and replaced by coins which were introduced the previous April and which have weighed down trousers ever since. Ironically, £1 notes were greeted with public outrage when they were first put into widespread use as an emergency measure to replace gold sovereigns during World War I.
The 12 November 1974 was a red letter day for anglers for in the River Thames a salmon was caught the first since the 1840s
In his novel Moll Flanders Daniel Defoe described Newgate Prison as “that horrible place”, he should know he was imprisoned there in 1703
The circumference at the Gherkin’s widest point is 178 metres, which is only two metres less than its height of 180 metres
In 1926 suicide pits installed due to passengers throwing themselves in front of trains only Jubilee line has glass screens to deter jumpers
In Parliament in 1981 a private member’s bill (Control of Space Invaders (& other Electronic Games) Bill) tried to ban Space Invaders
The wedding in the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral was filmed at the Augustinian priory church of St. Bartholomew the Great
The first HMV store at 363 Oxford Street was opened by composer Edward Elgar in 1921. HMV stands for ‘His Master’s Voice’
Boxing legend Sir Henry Cooper trained in the gym above the Thomas a Becket pub previously at 320 Old Kent Road, Walworth
The Underground’s longest journey without change is on the Central line from West Ruislip to Epping – a total of 34.1 miles
Prostitutes around Southwark worked in the many brothels or ‘stews’ licensed by the Bishop of Winchester and were known as the Bishop’s Geese
Wildlife observed on the Tube network includes woodpeckers, deer, sparrowhawk, bats, grass snakes, great crested newts, slow worms
Trivial Matter: London in 140 characters is taken from the daily Twitter feed @cabbieblog.
A guide to the symbols used here and source material can be found on the Trivial Matter page.
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