So just before 9pm on Monday evening, the Chancellor stood up at the Mansion House to deliver his pivotal speech that would detail how London was to salvage its position as a capital-raising venue of choice.
Indeed, there was lots to applaud, most notably pension funds agreeing to invest as much as £50 billion into UK growth companies. The theory being it helps keep those businesses conceived by domestic talent rooted to the local market rather than fleeing Stateside or succumbing to a trade sale. In turn, that delivers value — and tax revenues — back to the UK, but at what cost to the free market? As noted on Monday night, for the City of London to succeed it needs to stop eating itself. At Mansion House they seemed simply to be oblivious to such calls, and it was more a case of getting stuck into the main course — with aplomb.
