Welcome to Britain

One of the clearest memories from my schooldays in London is of the teacher standing in front of a map of the world covered in red and telling us that we were living in the greatest city on earth.

The British empire encircled the world in those days – all those countries coloured in red. We heard a lot about it throughout my childhood – it was arrogance to assume we were the biggest civilisation in history.

But the world now emerging is one in which the most successful economy is China. We are living through a huge shift of economic and eventually military and political power from America and Europe to Asia.

For those who have the money, a young generation is coming of age in a pick and mix world with young people choosing what they wanted and deciding how they will live. I’m very comfortable with that because that is what London is all about.