Alison Gowman Out & Michael Mainelli In As Yet Another Guildhall Lodge Mason Picked To Be Lord Mayor Of London In 2023

For us the difference between Alison Gowman and Micheal Mainelli is about on a par with that between a rock and a hard place. That said, according to the Financial Times last week the Court of Alderman have decided to back Mainelli to be Lord Mayor after Nick Lyons takes over from Vincent Keaveny later this year:

The City has picked Michael Mainelli, an economist and former accountant, to become lord mayor of London in 2023 following a secret ballot held by a group of grandees of the Square Mile.

The City of London Corporation’s Court of Aldermen has voted to elect Mainelli to the post, according to people familiar with the situation, which comes with a long list of ceremonial duties in welcoming overseas visitors to the UK and promoting the City around the world.

The lord mayor lives in the Mansion House, close to the Bank of England, for the year, where lavish dinners are held for the grandees of various City-based industries. The candidate normally is normally rewarded with a knighthood after taking the unpaid role.

The decision means that the other candidate for the role, Alison Gowman, a consultant at law firm DLA Piper, will miss out on becoming only the third woman to hold the post in more than 800 years.

The City of London Corporation, which is the local government of the Square Mile, has been accused of being an old boys’ club by critics of the often opaque processes that sit behind much of its decision making. Only four women sit on the 25-strong Court of Aldermen, which elects the lord mayor.

Mainelli is the co-founder of Z/Yen, a City of London think-tank that aims to promote societal advance through better finance and technology, and has previously worked at accountants BDO and as a senior civil servant at the Ministry of Defence’s Defence Evaluation & Research Agency.

He was elected one of the two sheriffs of the City of London in 2019, widely seen as a stepping stone to becoming lord mayor.

A letter seen by the Financial Times to the City’s livery companies, the trade associations and guilds, said that the Court of Aldermen has agreed that Mainelli “shall be supported for the Mayoralty in 2023/2024”.

He will follow Nicholas Lyons, chair of the insurer Phoenix, who is set to take over the role later this year.

Lyons was picked with some controversy after members of the City of London Corporation raised concerns over the eligibility of his Irish nationality, while also pointing out that his appointment meant that the City had missed out on picking his rival as the first openly gay Lord Mayor.

Lyons will be the City’s 693rd lord mayor, following the incumbent, DLA Piper finance partner Vincent Keaveny. Mainelli’s election is still subject to the formality of the election at the City’s Common Hall in 2023. Mainelli was not available for comment.

The appointment process was overseen by an external panel chaired by BAE Systems chair Sir Roger Carr.

The letter to the livery companies concluded: “As in previous years, the court hopes that this process of deciding which candidates it will support for progression to higher office in the years ahead continues to be of benefit to the Livery.”

The City of London Corporation said: “As usual the lord mayor will be elected at Common Hall in an open and transparent way. As every year, we publish a letter sharing the name of the individual supported by the Court of Aldermen for election as lord mayor on our website.”

City economist picked to be lord mayor of London in 2023. Michael Mainelli chosen by the City of London’s Court of Aldermen ahead of Alison Gowman by Daniel Thomas, Financial Times, 9 June 2022. See the original here.

Only the City of London Lie Machine could describe an election that everyone knows is rigged as taking place in ‘an open and transparent way’. If the election to become the Lord Mayor of London wasn’t rigged it wouldn’t be the case that more than two-thirds of those elected to this plum post since the founding of the Guildhall Lodge 3116 in 1905 have belonged this tiny masonic coterie. Michael Mainelli’s register of interests shows that like so many of his predecessors he is not just a mason but a member of the Guildhall Lodge. Given that masons constitute significantly less than one percent of the population of England, their massive over-representation within top posts at the City of London council – and not just that of lord mayor – is astoundingly disproportionate.

Like current lord mayor Vincent Keaveny and current head of the common council Chris Hayward (also a member of the Guildhall Lodge and a much higher ranking mason than the 2023 lord mayor in waiting), Mainelli has acted as a star turn at the annual City celebration of the slaver John Cass. In fact both Hayward and Mainelli acted as star turns at a celebration of John Cass just two years ago in 2020! Like Keaveny, Mainelli also belongs to Mensa, the club for those whose hobby is taking intelligence tests – but unlike his rival for the 2023 mayoral post Alison Gowman and Keaveny, he isn’t a partner at DLA Piper. So there you have it, picking between Mainelli and Gowman is a choice between a rock and a hard place…. What we want to see is not just the abolition of the office of lord mayor but the scrapping of the entire Court of Alderman and the business vote as a first step in the democratic reform of the City of London council.

Michael Mainelli belongs to Mensa, the club for those whose hobby is taking intelligence tests. Scroll down the link here to see Vincent Keaveny’s Mensa profile.

The header (above top and below) shows City of London councillor and lord mayor-in-waiting Michael Mainelli (red robe), his wife Elisabeth Mainelli (red hat) and former lord mayor Andrew Parmley (red robe) with a bust of John Cass above them at the 2020 iteration of the annual celebration of this slave trader.