It is common practise for the new Lord Mayor to give an annual address to all the Livery Companies and Guilds soon after his installation. Accordingly (while the Mistress was with the Lady Mayoress in Guildhall – see Blog No 59) I joined with pretty much all of the Masters from across the City at the Mansion House to hear what he had to say.
The address normally takes the form of a lecture by the Lord Mayor himself but this year Alderman Peter Estlin favoured instead an “Question Time” format. This took to form of an “interview” conducted by the Chairman of the Livery Committee, Victoria Russell with the other “panellist” being the Town Clerk and Chief Executive of the City of London Corporation, John Barradell. These three made for a very interesting and at times challenging conversation!
Space does not allow for the details of the many topics covered during the interviews and much of this has been widely reported previously. Suffice to say the Lord Mayor has set an enormous challenge in “Shaping Tomorrows City Today” to the extent that it will not be a Mayoral theme for just one year but will transcend at least three Mayoralties, elements of which were already started by the last two Lord Mayors. These are very much long-term objectives.
Some searching questioning from the Chairman and the floor kept both panellists on their toes and it was particularly fascinating to hear the Town Clerks’ view of the Corporation as a paid executive rather than an elected Lord Mayor. But all parties are clearly singing from the same hymn sheet and so London is in safe hands. We wish the Lord Mayor and his team every success and the Livery will of course play its own part in ensuring that London remains the best city in the world to do business.
A small drinks reception followed which included the opportunity to purchase some of the Lord Mayor’s own whiskey – a good stocking filler perhaps?!
Picture shows (from left to right) the Lord Mayor, Ms Russell and the Town Clerk.
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