Opinion: From Dubai with love – a room with a frontline view on a rapidly changing world

By Toby Clegg 2026-03-18T16:00:00

Toby Clegg, chief executive at UK-based broker Clegg Gifford, gives his unique perspective on today’s risk register – as a general insurance broker stranded in Dubai with his family after their holiday plans fell apart due to the conflict hitting the Middle East

Until recently, Dubai had such an evocative power that the mere mention of the city evoked a certain glitzy future – influencers lounging beside infinity pools, cranes permanently etched onto the skyline, superabundant supercars fostered in a tax-free oasis that seemed to have materialised out of the desert in a scant few years.

Yet, in just 10 days, Dubai now evokes all sorts of other feelings thanks to missile alerts, kamikaze drones, incomprehensible geopolitics and the uncomfortable realisation that despite everything, this gleaming metropolis still sits in a precarious neighbourhood.

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