79.Lord Mayor's Address to the Livery, Mansion House, 22 November 2023


I have taken so many pictures of the current Lord Mayor standing at a lectern I thought that it was about time for a change so a previous Lord Mayor instead.  One of 625!

This was one of the occasions when Masters had to be at the Mansion House to hear the Lord Mayor.  It was an impressive but informal occasion. The Lord Mayor started with thanks to the cadet forces from the Army, Navy and Air Force for their help at the Lord Mayor’s show.  He then outlined his vision and plans for the year ahead.  In particular he emphasised the importance of the Livery and cross-Livery working.  We were given a handout on 12 of the different pan-Livery activities.  Although we have engaged with many of them, I felt that we were active members of relatively few and we needed to revisit our pan-Livery activities.

The Lord Mayor then focused on his theme of Connect to Prosper and the various initiatives that were helping to deliver it.  He described the series of lectures which comprised the Knowledge Mile and invited contributing Livery Companies to stand and be recognised, which I duly did.  He then described the coffee colloquy and invited the contributing Livery Companies to stand, which I did.


He then shared a thought map on how all the initiatives linked together.  After about three quarters of an hour he stopped for questions.  I then stood up and asked about improving communications of Livery activities and achievements.  This aspiration was strongly supported by the Lord Mayor although he then identified me as the recipient for all suggestions.  It was encouraging to hear what initiatives were under way including a new LinkedIn site for Livery and a report on Livery contributions to the City.  These included the £75m aggregate giving by the Livery, 11% increase in funds donated last year, 143,000 hours per year in pro bono support to the charitable sector and more than 1000 school governors.  I was also advised of the need to avoid some issues which could generate criticism of the Livery.

It was a very encouraging and challenging afternoon.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

230. Installation Court, Apothecaries’ Hall, 3 July 2024

Image
The Installation Court was held in the magnificent setting of the Apothecaries’ Hall. The focus of the Court meeting was on the growth of the Company and increased activity and income. The Company was very pleased to welcome Liam Hogg, Lee Morton and Gerald O’Shaughnessy as new Liverymen, and Martin Ballard, Avtar Jirh, Tom Morton, Michael Nates, Lina Nieto, Elizabeth Price, Mark Smith, John Ward, Judy West and John Wylie as new Freemen of the Company.
Read more

229. Sunset Cruise and Dinner, River Thames, 2 July 2024

Image
My thank you event for the Court and Company had to involve water, so what better way than a sunset cruise on the Thames!   I wanted a memorable expression of thanks to members of the Court, Past Masters, Fellow Masters, Consorts and friends. I took the advice of the Master Waterman and approached several companies to hire a boat for the evening. The first we declined when we found that the catering was not of the required standard. Everything was going well for the second boat until I advertised it to the Court and had more responses than could fit on the boat. So we got a bigger boat and filled it. The caterer was concerned how they could feed us all but I was confident it would work. On Monday morning I took a call from the boat company to say that the refuelling on Saturday night had resulted in contaminated oil getting to the engine and they offered a fourth boat …. the Wellington ! I politely declined, as I knew the Wellington would not be cruising anywhere. Eventually the...
Read more

148. The City Water Debate, Go with the flow: working with nature and managing catchments, Bakers’ Hall, Thursday 21 March 2024

Image
There was a great turnout from the Company and sector for the third in our prestigious series of City Water Debates.   Organised around World Water Day it was close to 1st April, the 50 year anniversary of the formation of the regional water authorities, based on river basins and catchments.   They are still the fundamental building blocks of the organisation of the water companies and the Environment Agency. We had a high profile panel of speakers: Bart Schoonbaert (Associate Director, Arup) Rt Hon Ruth Kelly PC (Chair, Water UK) Mark Lloyd (Chief Executive, The Rivers Trust) Richard Bramley (Chair, Environment Forum, National Farmers’ Union) Peter Simpson (Chief Executive, Anglian Water) They tackled a wide range of issues including; the scope for a different, less carbon-intensive and more environmentally sustainable nature-based approach for managing future water sector needs, with joint working by many partners, what are the best models for financing and delivering such...
Read more