A FRESH row broke out at Lloyd's of London yesterday when an association representing hard-pressed members claimed that the market was pounds 2.05bn too pessimistic in its assessment of their solvency.

An improvement in product design and quality helped French Connection, the fashion group that owns Nicole Farhi, turn a loss of pounds 133,000 into a pounds 5.1m profit for the year to January. There was no dividend and a payment this year is unlikely

MICHAEL Heseltine, the President of the Board of Trade, has announced new funds of pounds 6m to promote the use of design by British industry.

The Design Council, a quango charged with promoting design matters, is to be radically restructured following a review of its multi-million pound activities, Michael Heseltine, President of the Board of Trade, announced yesterday, writes Jonathan Glancey.

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ALMOST pounds 440m of financial help is to be provided by the authorities of Lloyd's, the insurance market, in an effort to help thousands of underwriting members to stave off financial ruin and allow them to continue to underwrite in the market.

IN WHAT is an otherwise excellent and very just obituary of Dr James Venus (2 September), Bill Wilson makes an important omission, writes John Dearing. In rather dismissing Jim's role in the senior management of British Shipbuilders, he ignores the vital part that he played in a technological breakthrough which was probably even more important for the future of shipbuilding than the development of covered yards.

Sir: Various parties at Lloyd's of London have recently been issuing 'facts' to the press in an attempt to promote their own particular aims. This, during 1992, has produced a large number of incorrect stories in various newspapers, as was particularly highlighted after the Council's meeting to discuss the possibility of a bail-out scheme. Your leader today suffers from a similar lack of correct information.

Sir: Could you please settle a good old-fashioned pub argument? I say that your new cartoon character 'Tripp' is a highly sophisticated, post-modernist, deconstructed Candide figure for our times. My mates say he's a load of boring rubbish. Which of us is right?