Consuming Interest
Pluvius Policies
By LESLIE ADRIAN NOT long ago an intend- ing holidaymaker going to the South of Spain asked for an insurance policy to pay the ransom money if he and his family were taken prisoner by bandits. No trouble at all . . . he found that he was merely seeking a modern version of an insurance first ' issued some 400 years ago to safeguard ships' captains and first mates against being held hostage by pirates. Well, we don't need that kind of protection, but we can try to make our holidays as trouble-free as possible.
Personally I am not banking on another sum- mer like last year, and so might be tempted to take out a Pluvius policy to repay my holiday expenses for days spoilt by rain—though it will be frowned upon if I try to make a profit out of it. These insurances operate for a very large number of areas in this country between the hours of 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Usually for a policy to pay there has to be at' least one-tenth of an inch of rain during the day (or up to one-fifth of an inch in some western districts). Anyway, it needs only about two hours of rain to achieve this, or considerably less in a thunderstorm. There is just one snag. The policy does not paY for the first qualifying day in each week. Other- wise it is £2 for each wet day, all for a premitoo in the region of 12s. 6d. to 15s. per week. Far £4 a day the premiums are doubled.
More and more hotel proprietors, and others, try to extract deposits from one at the time of booking. What happens if, through no fault of one's own, it is not possible to go? Sometimes a refund'can be obtained, in other cases it trlaY mean paying the total bill (less an allowance for food). It is, however, now cheap enough to take out a policy of indemnity against this risk' The premium is no more than about £1 pc!. £100 insured and pro rata.
Many Englishmen still think that in crossing the Channel they lay themselves instantly oPen to being poisoned by the funny foreign food-- not to mention the risk of being knocked over and left lying in the road by a reckless continental driver. Because few continental countries are as hospitable as we are in providing a free health service for visitors, accident and sickness can prove to be extremely expensive. Even in countries with which we have (theoretically) a reciprocal arrangement on free medical care, it can be an interminably difficult business actuallY to extract the cash. So, for anyone going abroad. especially with young children, a policy which covers these costs and also pays. any additional expenses (travel, hotel, etc.) is a good idea. For a group of three people wanting total cover for medical expenses up to £200 the cost IS about 45s. for up to seventeen days, or 50s. UP to twenty-four days (each additional person add one-third). On the other hand, one person for £100 for up to seventeen days is in the region of 12s. 6d. (or 20s. for £200). The first 50s. of each accident is usually excluded.
1 have had a disillusioning letter from a fellow- Pupil at the BA School of Successful Writing Ltd. To them, as I recorded a few weeks ago. I had sent an article of mine for comments, to try to find out something about the school. My correspondent tells me that his work was com- mented upon in exactly the same Phrases as
Mine. sr was, he says, 'elated that two of my
notices should read word for word the same as Yours, as 1 am a complete beginner and have never written-or attempted to write-for pub- lication before. Depressed that sour school of Journalism which charges £25 for a course and boasts of the individual treatment of each pupil should apparently write standardised letters to
Need I say more?
'A new form of petty blackmail appears to have "ePt in as an irritant at Cromwell Road Air lerminal. Arriving there off the bus from the airPort the other afternOon I was waiting with Perhaps a score of fellow-passengers for our luggage As each piece came in over the rollers was last: it always is) the owners bran- dished their chits, but the official paid no atten-
tion to them. Instead, he asked, 'does anybody want a taxi?' and took the chits of those who wanted taxis first, handing their bags to a porter, who carried them the few yards to the exit where the taxis were lined up. The passengers could hardly say that they did not need porters (though none of them as far as I could see did) as the perterage is technically free; but how many of us have the courage not to tip, on such occasions, when a porter is standing beside an open taxi door, with the look of casual unconcerned ex- pectancy written all over him?
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