Learning to trust bankers again is the very worst thing we could do | Giles Fraser: Loose canon
Nosegays are bunches of flowers that posh people used to carry to fend off the smell of commoners when travelling the streets. In a former life, it was a standard part of my kit when I used to dress up as chaplain to one of the sheriffs of the City of London, now the outgoing Lord Mayor. And nosegays will still be carried on Saturday's Lord Mayor's Day, when the mayors are rotated and the incoming one travels up to Westminster to swear loyalty to the crown.
This ceremony, now celebrating its 800th anniversary, was a part of the overall settlement of 1215 - the year of Magna Carta - when a deal was struck that the City could be granted the independence of having its own mayoral authority as long as that authority was subservient to the crown. In a constitutional monarchy, that settlement can be reasonably reinterpreted to mean that the City has relative freedom and independence, as long as it acknowledges its subservience to the common good as represented by the monarch. Or, to stretch it a bit more: markets are made for man, not man for markets.
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