Off to Norwich for a weekend of Norfolkness -- we went to Holt to go antiquing on Saturday, followed by a jolly pleasant if somewhat chilly stroll along the river side in Norwich on Sunday morning. It's been more than a year since my last visit to this fine city, and some things have changed for the better. The stretch along The Quayside has been opened up, its trading heritage nicely highlighted in some street sculpture; traffic has been banned between St Andrew's and Colegate, which is always a good thing. The cathedral precincts remain as medievally delicious as ever -- in fact, the whole area around Riverside is packed with quaint alleys and lanes, ancient houses, and stacked skylines, reflecting its impressive history.
For global insurance companies, however, history counts for naught. The decision to "rebrand" Norwich Union -- our most notable employer -- as Aviva is evidence of this; you may have seen the annoying ads trumpeting this lunacy. Why take a respected, well-known name and replace it with a bland, no-meaning word like "Aviva"? It could be air freshener, it could be a travel company, it could be anything -- except an insurance business trading for 300 years and HQ'ed in East Anglia. At a time when consumers are looking for local products (for local people?), this change is expensive, pointless, and fat-headed. Idiots.
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