Late news: what was really served at the Mansion House banquet

Last week’s deadline did not allow me to report from ringside at the Mansion House dinner, but there was so much to observe that I hope you’ll forgive a late dispatch. What a vivid guide to City psychology and precedence it offered.

In the anteroom, Lord (Jim) O’Neill, the Treasury’s new Northern Powerhouse minister, could be seen chatting to ex-BP chief Tony Hayward, now chairman of mining giant Glencore Xstrata. At the top table, HSBC chairman Douglas Flint was carefully separated (by António Horta-Osório of Lloyds) from Governor Carney, so they could avoid discussing HSBC’s plans to move back to Hong Kong. But in prime place next to George Osborne was Jayne-Anne Gadhia of Virgin Money — which the Chancellor called ‘that great challenger’ in his speech: there’s a turnaround from 2007, when Virgin wasn’t thought fit to buy busted Northern Rock.

And among the lower-table crowd were lots of gossips — offering, among other things, a guide to deputy governors of the Bank of England, of whom there are four, or possibly five.