On the 25th January the Company had the pleasure of welcoming Nicholas Lyons, the current Lord Mayor of London and a members of his team to Merchants’ Hall as part of their tour of Scotland. During this business breakfast we were joined by a variety of company members and associates as well as invited guests representing a variety of businesses and sectors across the Edinburgh economy.
The Company has a long association with the Lord Mayor of London, regularly hosting events when they venture north. It’s a great opportunity for both parties to discuss the vibrancy of the local economies and promote various business and social initiatives.
Coffee was served in the crush hall before a thoroughly enjoyable breakfast was enjoyed by all in the Court room. Our Treasurer, Dame Sue Bruce introduced the Lord Mayor whose talk was wide ranging on investment, risk, regulation, adult numeracy and even referenced the fact that as it was the 25 January, we would be celebrating our national Bard, Rabbie Burns, though he did admit he was a little unsure about what we had for breakfast on such a day – eggs benedict was the offering for the guests during the morning.
His talk looked at long-term investment, private equity, infrastructure lending, green and sustainable financing and how they can boost the UK economy. He talked about the early stage growth economy and how we should be mobilising savings, pension fund assets, attracting overseas assets and asset managers to further boost to benefit the economy and society. He demonstrated the UK is far behind many other economies in such endeavours and this must be corrected, especially so the UK can retain the vast numbers of highly skilled and innovative individuals/companies rather than seeing them going abroad to thrive and prosper. He did note the UK pension industry is generally very risk averse and very cost conscious, rather than growth orientated, none of which helps in terms of the above. He did however stress that the UK regulatory structure is well respected across the globe and we must take advantage of that. Another of his initiatives is to help improve adult numeracy. He quoted a shocking stat that nearly 50% of adults have a numeracy level equivalent that to a primary school child. The link he made to pensions, investment and regulation is that you cannot have regulation forcing adults to pay to take advice on their pensions when they do not understand or see the financial benefits of doing so.
There followed a range of searching questions from members, all ably answered by the Lord Mayor.
The old master Douglas Kinloch Anderson gave the vote of thanks noting some of the similarities and differences in our histories and asked the audience to show their appreciation to the Lord Mayor for his talk. The Treasurer then presented the Lord Mayor with a copy of our book, the Edinburgh Merchant Company – a story of endeavour and achievement. In return the Lord Mayor presented the Company with a personalised fountain pen with his name and years of office and a spoon. Since the inaugural annual visit of the Lord Mayor of London to the Merchants Hall, the Company has received a silver spoon from the Lord Mayor as a gift. The unique spoon presented by The Rt Hon. The Lord Mayor, a Merchant Taylor, pays homage to the history between Honourable Company of Skinners and Worshipful Company of Taylors. In Livery Company precedence, the afore mentioned Livery Companies alternate each year between 6th and 7th in The Procession Order of the Great Twelve Livery Companies, to which some attribute the origin of the phrase: ‘to be at sixes and sevens.’
All in all, a very successful and well appreciated event. Many thanks to the Merchant Company team and the caterers for ensuring the event was such a success.
– Duncan Thomson