Mansion House

The cold became intense.

in the main street at the corner of the court some labourers were repairing the gas-pipes and had lighted a great fire in a brazier round which a party of ragged men and boys were gathered warming their hands and winking their eyes before the blaze in rapture the water-plug being left in solitude its overflowing sullenly congealed and turned to misanthropic ice the brightness of the shops where holly sprigs and berries crackled in the lamp-heat of the windows made pale faces ruddy as they passed poulterers and grocers trades became a splendid joke a glorious pageant with which it was next to impossible to believe that such dull principles as bargain and sale had anything to do The Lord Mayor, in the stronghold of the mighty Mansion House, gave orders to his fifty cooks and butlers to keep Christmas as a Lord Mayor's household should, and even the little tailor, whom he had fined five shillings on the previous Monday for being drunk and blood-thirsty in the streets, stirred up to-morrow's pudding in his garret, while his lean wife and the baby sallied out to buy the beef.

foggier yet and colder piercing searching biting cold if the good st dunstan had but nipped the evil spirit's nose with a touch of such weather as that instead of using his familiar weapons then indeed he would have roared to lusty purpose The owner of one's scant young nose, gnawed and mumbled by the hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs, stooped down at Scrooge's keyhole to regale him with a Christmas carol, but at the first sound of, "'God rest ye merry gentlemen, may nothing you dismay!' Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog, and even more congenial frost." At length the hour of shutting up the counting-house arrived.

With an ill will Scrooge dismounted from his stool, and tacitly admitted the fact to the expectant clerk in the tank, who instantly snuffed his candle out and put on his hat.

End of chapter

THE BALL AT THE MANSION HOUSE April 30th.—Perfectly astounded at receiving an invitation for Carrie and myself from the Lord and Lady Mayoress to the Mansion House, to meet representatives of trades and commerce, my heart beat like that of a schoolboy's.

Carrie and I read the invitation over two or three times.

I could scarcely eat my breakfast.

I said, and I felt it from the bottom of my heart, "'Carrie, darling, I was a proud man when I led you down the aisle of the church on our wedding day.

That pride will be equalled, if not surpassed, when I lead my dear pretty wife up to the Lord and Lady Mayoress at the mansion house.' I saw the tears in Carrie's eyes, and she said, "'Charlie, dear, it is I who have to be proud of you, and I am very, very proud of you.

You have called me pretty, and as long as I am pretty in your eyes, I am happy.

You, dear old Charlie, are not handsome, but you are good, which is far more noble.' I gave her a kiss, and she said, "'I wonder if there will be any dancing?' I have not danced with you for years.

Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, Good morning and what a wonderful way to start the week.

Welcome to Mansion House.

And on behalf of the Lady Mayor and the entire City of London Corporation, can I thank you for gathering here today for this important conference? As Andrew said, my name is Alderman Robert Hughes Penny.

one of the two elected sheriffs of the City of London, the oldest position in the city.

Mm.

So if you look at the Mansion House Accords, so Jeremy Hunt, when he was the chancellor, you know, signed an agreement with the Mansion House group, five of the biggest asset allocators in the UK, M&G, L&G, Aviva, they were then called Phoenix, now Standard Life, and Schroders.

They said that by 2030, 5% of their assets under management would be in the innovation economy.

Rachel Reeves then got the same group to increase that number from 5% to 10%, and a large number of other people signed the Mansion House Accords.

Railpen, many of the local authority pension funds.

We did some analysis recently.

There are 1,800 companies in the UK, venture-backed, doing over 20 million pounds in revenue.

Revenue, not valuation.

In the main street, at the corner of the court, some laborers were repairing the gas-pipes, and had lighted a great fire in a brazier, round which a party of ragged men and boys were gathered, warming their hands and winking their eyes before the blaze in rapture, the water-plug being left in solitude, its overflowing suddenly congealed, and turned to misanthropic ice.

the brightness of the shops where holly sprigs and berries crackled in the lamp-heat of the windows made pale faces ruddy as they passed poulterers and grocers trades became a splendid joke a glorious pageant with which it was next to impossible to believe that such dull principles as bargain and sale had anything to do The Lord Mayor, in the stronghold of the mighty Mansion House, gave orders to his fifty cooks and butlers to keep Christmas as a Lord Mayor's household should, and even the little tailor, whom he had fined five shillings on the previous Monday for being drunk and bloodthirsty in the streets, stirred up tomorrow's pudding in his garret, while his lean wife and the baby sallied out to buy the beef.

foggier yet and colder piercing searching biting cold if the good st dunstan had but nipped the evil spirit's nose with a touch of such weather as that instead of using his familiar weapons then indeed he would have roared to lusty purpose the owner of one scant young nose gnawed and mumbled by the hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs stooped down at scrooge's keyhole to regale him with a christmas carol but at the first sound of god bless you merry gentlemen may nothing you dismay Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost.

At length the hour of shutting up the counting-house arrived.

white chapter THE

BALL AT THE MANSION HOUSE April 30th.—Perfectly astounded at receiving an invitation for Carrie and myself from the Lord and Lady Mayoress to the Mansion House, to meet representatives of trades and commerce, my heart beat like that of a schoolboy's.

Carrie and I read the invitation over two or three times.

I could scarcely eat my breakfast.

I said, and I felt it from the bottom of my heart, "'Carrie, darling, I was a proud man when I led you down the aisle of the church on our wedding day.

That pride will be equalled, if not surpassed, when I lead my dear pretty wife up to the Lord and Lady Mayoress at the mansion house.' I saw the tears in Carrie's eyes, and she said, "'Charlie, dear, it is I who have to be proud of you, and I am very, very proud of you.

You have called me pretty, and as long as I am pretty in your eyes, I am happy.

You, dear old Charlie, are not handsome, but you are good, which is far more noble.' I gave her a kiss, and she said, "'I wonder if there will be any dancing?' I have not danced with you for years.

Think of it as the ambassador for financial and professional services, not just for the city, but for the UK.

And think about the Mansion House, not as a ceremonial place, but almost as the embassy for financial and professional services.

So my role is exactly as you say, to bang the drum for the UK.

I spend over 50% of the time overseas promoting the city and promoting the UK, but also connecting capital to opportunity and something I'm sure we'll talk about shortly.

So I got all of the major associations.

We got 220 of the city's businesses to be behind a campaign that just very thoughtfully and very honestly and very plainly talks about the city's strengths.

So you may have seen if you walk past the mansion house, we actually wrapped the pillars pink and black.

We went out with a social media campaign.

Poulterers' and grocers' trades became a splendid joke, a glorious pageant, with which it was next to impossible to believe that such dull principles as bargain and sale had anything to do.

The Lord Mayor, in the stronghold of the mighty Mansion House, gave orders to his fifty cooks and butlers to keep Christmas as a Lord Mayor's household should; and even the little tailor, whom he had fined five shillings on the previous Monday for being drunk and bloodthirsty in the streets, stirred up to-morrow's pudding in his garret, while his lean wife and the baby sallied out to buy the beef.

Foggier yet and colder.

Piercing, searching, biting cold.

If we go back to UK finances demands two, two and a half years ago now, we asked the government really to do four things.

Firstly, we wanted to hear the Chancellor stand up and say at Mansion House or in a speech in the House that she wanted the UK to create the world's best regulation for digital tokenization of real world assets.

We still haven't heard that today.

We've

We haven't actually heard those words, and I don't really understand why, which I think is a shame.

The second thing we wanted to see was the government, as it were, putting its money where its mouth is by issuing a series of digital guilts.

So we have at Mansion House the other night had a statement that there will be one early next year, latest early next year.

That's good.