In a typically colourful speech to the Confederation of British Industry Annual Conference, Mayor of London Boris Johnson gave hope and encouragement to UK and London commerce and business leaders, to strive for an "age of enterprise" in the face of Eurozone austerity.

“If you endlessly tell companies to tighten their belts and eat nut cutlets and drink their own urine - then you will be putting a big downer on growth and enterprise," he said.


“The world pie is getting bigger: it was $32 trillion (£20 trillion) in 2000; by the time of the crash it had doubled to $62 trillion; but in spite of everything it is still growing now at $72 trillion dollars. London firms need to be able to get their share - and more - of that expanding pie. We start off with amazing advantages - the right time zone, language, creative culture and media dominance.”


Opening the event, the CBI's president Sir Roger Carr said: "we must salvage the reputation of business."

"We must demonstrate that we are a generation that is focused not just on how much money we make – but how we make money. Businesses' and individuals' standards have been variable, greed prevalent and fairness forgotten in a number of sectors – banking and media at the forefront – but others from all walks of life [have shown] signs of bad behaviour."

Full coverage of the Conference is available here.