World Traders' Tacitus Lecture, Guildhall
23rd February 2017This annual lecture has been organised by the World Traders since 1988 and is some undertaking. They are able to pretty much fill the entire Guildhall - around 600 I suppose, and the event was filmed and recorded for transmission via their www site later. The speaker, Sir Simon Fraser, CGMG spoke about the Britain's prospects under the title The World is Our Oyster? Britain's Future Trade Relationships - basically how it's going to work post-Brexit... It was very interesting, if slightly nerve wracking.. as far as I could read it, the summary was "last one turn out the lights"! We've along way to go yet, and there are so many variables in the offing, he had to concede that it was almost impossible to play soothsayer, except that it was going to be even more complex than even he had anticipated! After questions had been done, we needed a drink and thankfully the World Traders had laid on a good bar and canapes upstairs. It was the evening of Storm Doris so several Masters were late, however it wasn't long before we found each other and had a very good time discussing the grim apocalypse that faced us.. yes the tubes were likely to strike again and Southern Rail still can't encourage their workers to work! It had been a long day and by 8.30pm I was all in and went off to find my motorbike for a breezy trip home. Thanks to Master Robert Woodthorpe Brown, his team and Livery for a most interesting evening.