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I worked in the Lloyds market for names agents and underwriters many years ago. During the time when the market suffered a collapse because the rules were being broken and money that it was taken on trust would be held in cash simply wasn't there. It's also directly connected to the bonds and equity markets in terms of the amounts held as collateral against the underwritten risk.
I won't say too much about the 'names' who put the money up but it's common knowledge that it's a popular scheme for landed gentry etc. to make a little more on their investments and no one expects to ever lose.
But yes, it is an ancient industry that shows we were once leading in the provision of networks to support risk in the world. No doubt it supplies some tax revenue whilst supplying profits for the 'wealthy' which are not supposed to be leveraged but in the past have been shown to be.
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Aah.. but now one offshores the shoddy manufacturing and concentrates on heritage. See numerous threads on steel bikes and dandy apparel on here.
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It also took 300 years to build and finding an industry to replace it might take a while.
This is a straw man argument. Questioning the primacy that finance acquired since Thatcher's big bang is not the same as saying "Let's get rid of the insurance market" or "Let's get rid of the City".
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@NickCJ
If you think about something like the Lloyd’s market, a good proportion of the world comes to London to buy and sell insurance. That’s mostly a Good Thing for the UK. It also took 300 years to build and finding an industry to replace it might take a while.
I’ve never subscribed to the view of the manufacturing fetishists that ascribe the weakness of the UK economy to the fact that we don’t “make things” anymore. Truth is, once we had lost the captive Empire markets by the 60s/70s, no-one wanted to buy our shoddy, high-priced goods.