Insurers need to shape up and treat their customers properly

Tom Hiddleston and Taylor Swift’s romance is hot news in China, where online stores have been offering ‘break-up insurance’.

People, especially Hiddleston’s adoring female fans, have been paying up to 400 yuan, about £41, to predict how long the relationship will last. They hoped to double or even triple their cash.

Now Chinese authorities have ordered the stores to withdraw the schemes sharpish. Individuals can’t sell insurance in China, and in any case this is really betting – something also outlawed unless sanctioned by the state.

But then isn’t all insurance really betting, a bet against yourself that you will lose, that your house will burn down, your dog will need expensive surgery, that you will die prematurely?

Insurance is often money down the drain for those with means. Instead of paying premiums, they could self-insure by relying on savings. But even the comfortably-off need cover against major disasters from which they would not recover financially. And