Mark has again beaten Michael to the more glamorous locations. In December, whilst Michael was making do with learning to speak Chinese in the City and a one day trip to Wales (where it was raining), Mark spent four days in China (speaking English) and five days in Turkey. He spoke to 350 people at a conference in Shenzhen about the future for Chinese cites as financial centres and then addressed an even larger audience at a conference celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Istanbul Stock Exchange. Whilst at the conference, Mark shared the a stage with ex-Mayor of London Ken Livingstone at a panel discussion – Mark was talking about Istanbul’s strategy of attracting inward investment and Ken was bemoaning the state of the underground system in London. Quite what the audience made of these two contrasting Englishmen remains the subject of some conjecture…