£ More cheerfully, the current Lord Mayor has been doing his bit for the City of London, even when others won't or can't. Too often in the past the Lord Mayor (chosen by some arcane system amongst the Guilds) has been an anonymous greengrocer from Enfield or somesuch, who has done little or nothing to further the Square Mile's interests. By contrast Nicholas Lyons came to the job last November with real gravitas, and had to take a sabbatical as chairman of Phoenix Group to take on the role. True to form he has tackled the job with real energy, banging the drum for all that we have to offer to the world. Too bad that he only has a one-year term that expires in November. Perhaps like Dick Whittington he can be persuaded to do it again.

(c) 2023 City A.M., source Newspaper