My favourite place in the world is outside Bank station, where Lombard Street meets Cornhill. To your right is Lombard Street, a name macroeconomists will recognise from Walter Bagehot’s 1873 book, which popularised the idea of the central bank as lender of last resort and which Ben Bernanke leaned on heavily during the 2008 financial crisis. To your left is the Bank of England. In front of you is the Royal Exchange, which is far more than a fancy drinking spot for bankers.
Voltaire, when he visited the place, wrote: ‘When you enter into the Royal Exchange of London’, people of all different religions, ‘the Jew, the Mahometan, and the Christian trade together as if they were of the same religion, and bestow the name of infidel on bankrupts only. … Was there in London but one religion, despotism might be apprehended; if two only, they would seek to cut each other’s throats; but as there are at least 30, they live together in peace and happiness.’
It’s worth remembering how new and fragile the religious tolerance and freedom we have in the West really are. In 78 countries around the world, Christians face high, very high or extreme persecution
Whenever I pass that location, it reminds me that there are things more important than politics that bring us together, as if we were all of the ‘same religion’. One of them is Remembrance Sunday: one day when we come together to cherish the memory of those who defended our liberty without knowing us. But the things that are above politics are under attack on two fronts. The first front wants to politicise everything.
Join the Conversation
VIP members get the ability to comment on articles.