Equitable takes its directors to court, so guess who the winners will be

Charles Thomson has achieved what I thought was impossible. He has provoked me to sympathise with the directors of Equitable Life: the gold braid, that is, on the bridge when the ship hit the iceberg. Our oldest life assurance office — set up in 1762, which made it Barings’ twin — had been holed below the waterline. I have not, until now, had a kind word to say for them. I accused them of trying to save the society’s skin at the expense of its reputation, and failing. After that failure, they were pushed overboard, and now their successors are trying to sink them. Next week, in the High Court, the Equitable will open its case against its former directors and auditors. Already the lawyers are ticking like gas-meters. They can see at least six months’ highly paid work spread in front of them, but this does not faze Mr Thomson, who is now the Equitable’s chief executive.