The office of Lord Mayor of the City of London dates from 1189.
I was very fortunate to be elected Lord Mayor for 2007-8 having
served as Sheriff of London for 2006-7.
The Lord Mayor, who is unpaid, non-party political and
elected for one year, has two principal roles:
- he is a Foreign Office and Treasury ambassador for the whole of
the UK’s financial and professional services industry, which
employs some 1.5 million people, promoting UK business and inward
investment under “the City” brand. He has the rank of a Cabinet
Minister, although he has no political party affiliations, with the
title “Rt Hon” and in that capacity I travelled with business
delegations to 46 cities in 26 countries over 106 days abroad
meeting 15 Heads of State and an average of one Prime Minister or
Finance Minister every week;
- he is the Head of the City of London Corporation, the local
authority which runs the Square Mile which is independent of the
rest of London with its own budgets, schools and City Police; it
owns the Old Bailey Central Criminal Court, numerous schools, the
Barbican Centre, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Epping
Forest and Hampstead Heath, and five Thames bridges, and it is the
river authority for 93 miles of the Thames. The independent City is
rather like the Vatican within the larger city of Rome, its
independence originating from the time of the Magna Carta in 1215
when King John needed the City’s money to fight the French. The
Lord Mayor holds a number of other posts including Chief
Magistrate, Chancellor of City University and Admiral of the Port
of London as well as being a trustee of numerous
charities.
The Lord Mayor has an exceptionally demanding role. He has a
working breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, he makes some 900
speeches during his year, attends over 2,000 events and
addresses over 10,000 people face to face each month. He and his
family live in Mansion House, a lovely 250 year old four storey
Georgian building opposite the Bank of England where his 57 staff
work headed by his Private Secretary; several more staff work
nearby in Guildhall.
No one day is the same but the following illustrates a typical
day:
5.45-8.00am
Up earlier than usual for the annual visit to Smithfield meat
market (the City owns and runs Billingsgate and Spitalfields
markets as well). Arrive with my wife, Theresa, in the Rolls-Royce
(LMO) wearing suit and mayoral badge. Welcomed by the traders who
have been working for hours. Coming from a Carmarthenshire sheep
community I show great interest in the beef and lamb stalls which
are selling to the hotel and restaurant trade at wholesale prices.
We have a lovely cooked breakfast with our tenant traders before
they prepare for tomorrow. We return to Mansion House carrying
gifts of beef and lamb cuts. Theresa takes our black lab, Cothi,
for a walk along the river.
8.00-9.00am
My monthly breakfast to discuss the issues of the day with the
City leaders to ensure that I am up to date; attendees include the
Chairmen or CEOs of Barclays, HSBC, RBS, LloydsTSB, Lloyd’s,
Prudential, FSA, the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England
and the Second Permanent Secretary at the Treasury. I ask the Chief
of the Defence Staff to brief us on the military situation, and our
own City Police Commissioner to brief us on the current security
threat. The Treasury bring us all up to date with the worsening
credit crunch position. A very useful meeting.
9.00-9.30am
Daily meeting with my Private Secretary , diary secretary, one
of the four senior programme managers on duty for that day, and the
two speech writers to discuss the programme for the day and decide
queries on the forthcoming diary priorities and numerous requests
for dinners and meetings. I ask them to invite Boris in to discuss
the Crossrail and Olympics projects; the last time he came he
famously forgot to take off his bicycle clips. I also ask about the
ceremony tomorrow at which I have decided to confer the Freedom of
the City on the Chancellors of Oxford University and of Oxford
Brookes plus the Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire followed by a
lunch.
9.30-10.00am
Monthly meeting with the Mansion House accountant to discuss the
Lord Mayor’s private bill for the costs of his banquets and dinners
and the numerous presents to be given to VIPs during the year (he
has to pay for all the wine and champagne consumed). I have to
settle up at the end of the year.
10.00-10.45am
Quick change of clothes into black cloth tail coat in 18th
century style with black trousers, shrieval collar, jabot and lace
cuffs. Arrive at BT headquarters to chair a ceremony at which I
hand over to the Chairman the Queen’s Award for Export Achievement;
he puts the lovely engraved rose bowl on a sloping table and
fortunately it is saved before it falls on the floor. As Lord
Lieutenant for the City this is one of my most enjoyable
duties.
10.45-11.30am
A five minute dash round the corner to open a brand new office
block for a European Bank with a party for the employees who are
clearly enthused by their new working environment. Back in the car
to Mansion House and then change into a suit. I say hello to a
party of 20 of the 40,000 people who look round Mansion House
annually.
11.30am-12.30pm
Meeting with the Head of the KIO (Kuwaiti Investment Authority)
, one of the most successful sovereign wealth funds in the City. We
discuss the property and investment climate and I remind him that I
am shortly to visit the Middle East including Kuwait. Over half the
office blocks in the City are owned by foreign investors and it is
part of my role to encourage foreign direct investment. He asks me
about the Chancellor’s attack on non-doms, for which I have
publicly criticised him because I feel it will result in many
foreign owned businesses leaving the UK, a loss of employment in
the UK and the Treasury losing much more than it will gain.
12.30-2.00pm
Meeting with the Prime Minister of Qatar and his senior advisers
to discuss their plans. As with many Arabs London is their second
home and they love visiting here. Qatar is now providing over 20%
of the UK’s gas via the Milford Haven pipeline across Wales and is
an important trading partner. We then have lunch with a number of
City and business Chairmen and CEOs who we have invited to meet our
guests from Qatar. Before they leave we have the usual press
interview.
2.00-2.45pm
Meeting with the Russian ambassador, who we know well, to
discuss my forthcoming visit to Russia planned well before the
current Georgia conflict when relations between our respective
governments are frosty. He assures me that the Russian Government
will honour all the meetings which have already been set up and
that trade must continue irrespective of political disagreements.
He invites me to dinner at his embassy.
3.00-3.15pm
I speak to our Foreign Secretary on the phone and he confirms
that he and the PM agree I should go ahead with my visit to Russia
(the UK is the largest foreign investor) because I “do trade not
politics” although no UK Minister would be allowed to go at
present. I agree to meet the Prime Minister of Georgia shortly to
see how the City can help them and to show even-handedness.
3.30-4.30pm
Attending an investment conference in Mansion House for Northern
Ireland attended by the First Minister, the Deputy First Minister,
the US ambassador and many others. Billy, my senior programme
manager whose regiment served in Belfast years ago, meets Martin
McGuinness at the door. We have a most productive meeting, which I
have to leave early.
4.30-6.00pm
I prepare for my speech tonight and then change into the correct
dress for a State Banquet comprising velvet coat with breeches with
black stockings and black shoes with buckles, jabot and lace cuffs,
and the State ermine gown (one of four different gowns) plus of
course the City’s most precious possession, Sir Thomas More’s
original gold chain of 1520 which was taken from him when he was
executed at the Tower of London in 1535 and then sold by Henry VIII
to the City; Lord Mayors have worn it ever since and it is
kept in a vault with all our other valuable gold and silver. The
badge hanging from the chain which contains 154 diamonds is a mere
200 years old, but that is what the ladies look at. I decide I am
becoming quite good at cross-dressing.
6.00pm
Theresa, wearing a lovely long dress and a tiara, accompanies me
in the Rolls-Royce with City Police outriders to Guildhall, which
dates from the 13th century. We are accompanied by both Sheriffs of
London and their wives in their Rolls-Royces plus the Swordbearer
holding one of the six City swords, the City Marshal wearing his
wonderful red uniform and white plumed hat, and the Serjeant at
Arms carrying one of the solid-gold City maces. We are greeted by
the Band of the HAC (Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest
regiment in the British army and the Lord Mayor’s bodyguard).
We await the arrival of President Sarkozy of France and his
lovely wife, Carla Bruni, who had been the principal guests the
night before at the State Banquet at Windsor Castle, which we had
also attended, in the lovely hall rebuilt after the fire. The
French cavalcade arrives 50 minutes late but we and the caterers
take it in our stride. After numerous press photos, principally of
Carla’s dress, we process into the Great Hall to which we have
invited 750 guests. I make sure that Carla is seated on my left and
that the President is seated directly opposite our statues of
Nelson and Wellington.
The wonderful trumpeters of the Blues and Royals do the fanfares
and I start by giving a very friendly speech congratulating the
President on his recent marriage, emphasising the entente cordiale,
and reminding him that London is the seventh largest French city by
number of French residents so our food can’t be that bad.
Sarkozy speaks brilliantly, in French, and even jokes about
the statues which the French ambassador had tried to persuade us to
cover up. Carla is a very well-educated, interesting and enjoyable
dinner companion and signs one of her records which I
will later auction for my charity. They leave to go to the
airport to fly back to Paris after inviting me to the Elysee
Palace. A most enjoyable evening.
11.00pm
We arrive back at Mansion House where I write my thank you
letters by hand for that day and then take my dog for a late walk
down to the lawn beside the church where my predecessor, Dick
Whittington, is buried.
11.45pm
To bed. I ask my wife: “In your wildest dreams, did you ever
think I would become only the eighth Welsh Lord Mayor of London?”
She replies: “Darling, you have never featured in any of my wildest
dreams”. My ego completely destroyed I remind myself that there are
only 165 days to go before I can pass the baton to the next Lord
Mayor who has not the faintest idea of the stress and the enjoyment
awaiting him. I decide that public service is fine but there cannot
be many jobs where you have to take two years off paid employment,
work so hard unpaid with no expenses and end up much much poorer.
But then I cannot think of a job where you have so much variety,
meet such interesting people, travel so much globally, live in such
a lovely house, can speak your own mind, cannot be fired, and
where, on your own territory, you are second only to the
sovereign.
Sir David Lewis was Lord Mayor in 2007-8