Straight talking

Terry Whittaker cuts to the chase with Martin Friel: he doesn't suffer fools gladly and robustly defends QBE's pricing strategy, but is also prepared to expose his human side

Rates need to go up. That much is clear. The composites have made some faltering moves and ended up losing a lot more market share than they had been banking on. They have been bleating that they are being undercut and have demanded that smaller players start playing fair. The accusation is that newer entrants onto the UK regional scene have been pricing very aggressively in order to secure a position in the market. There have been many names whispered off the record and others more clearly on