The City of London Police Budget Deficit, Taylor Wimpey’s The Denizen & Top Cop Dave Clark

As we reported back in February this year concerns about potential conflicts of interest over planning permission being granted to Taylor Wimpey to build luxury apartments on the site of Bernard Morgan House now include speculation this former police building might have been sold to help cover a blown police budget. The focus of attention then was very much City of London common councillors James Thomson and Chris Hayward because of their involvements with both the planning and police committees. In a Sun ‘exclusive’ last week it was reported that top City of London cop Chief Superintendent Dave Clark was under investigation for ‘allegedly using secret information to help pals win crime contracts.’ If it turns out these allegations have any substance to them, we’d be very interested to know whether activities of the type being investigated contributed to the blown police budget.

Castle Baynard Election: A Beautiful Farce

There were eight candidates in the Castle Baynard common councillor election held on 9 October 2018 in the City of London. A total of 277 votes were cast. The Labour Party candidate Natasha Lloyd-Owen won with 77 votes, with seven ‘independents’ splitting 200 votes between them. Lloyd-Owen’s victory came as a shock to the true blue City types who ludicrously claim our local authority is non-political despite the fact it aggressively promotes the neo-liberal agenda championed by the right-wing of the Conservative Party. Labour have previously won seats in residential wards but never before in a ward like Castle Baynard dominated by undemocratic business votes. So while City slickers and legal professionals getting votes where they work as well as where they live is obscene, and the minuscule size of the electorate is completely absurd, it was still a historic win.

New Lord Mayor Peter Estlin Could Best Address Social Inclusion by Resigning

The usual media suspects – The Times, City AM, City Matters, Financial News London etc. – picked up the story that Peter Estlin was “elected” as Lord Mayor of London on 1 October. Of course Estlin was “elected” by his peers in the finance and legal industries rather than those who actually live within the boundaries of the local authority that he now lords it over. London’s current situation of having two mayors – one for the whole city and one for the much smaller City of London – is ridiculous. London doesn’t need two mayors and the best move Estlin could make if he’s serious about his agenda of social inclusion (we doubt it) is resigning and ensuring his powers and role are handed over to London’s real mayor, the democratically elected Sadiq Khan.

Diversity & Freemasonry At The City of London Council

The way in which men only freemasonic groups impact upon diversity within the City of London Corporation is disturbing. To date there have been 688 Lord Mayors who were men and 2 who were women. Since the founding of the Guildhall Lodge in 1905, 78 Lord Mayors of London have belonged to this men only freemasonic group. So over the past 113 years at least 69.03% of Lord Mayors of London have been masons, whereas 1.77% have been women. Although well under 1% of the English population are masons, members of the brotherhood have a better chance of becoming Lord Mayor of London than non-masons; and women who aren’t allowed to join influential all male lodges are largely excluded from such leadership roles.

City of London’s Neo-Liberal Politics Puts Londoners’ Housing Needs Last

Those familiar with the City of London council will not be surprised by the news that after landing a huge grant from the Mayor of London’s housing investment scheme, it has quietly dropped its plan to build 3700 new council homes by 2025. Likewise it would be silly to take at all seriously the claim: “The corporation said its budget for building new homes had come under pressure…” The modest size of this ‘pressured’ budget is a political decision; the Corporation could cease spending the millions in interest generated by its City’s Cash sovereign wealth fund on lobbying for neo-liberal economic policies and instead use the money for house building. However this is unlikely to happen until there is democratic reform of the local authority and the council chamber ceases to be controlled by undemocratic business votes.

Alison Gowman, Emine Erdogan & The City of London’s Vested Interests

Leaders at the City of London Corporation have been criticised after the prestigious Mansion House was used to honour the “humanitarian” work of the wife of the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has thrown thousands of his own people in jail. Emine Erdoğan was given an award by the Global Donors Forum at the prestigious venue “in recognition of her humanitarian service”. Her husband’s regime in Turkey is seen by many as brutal and dictatorial, increasingly run by a clique of his close family and friends.

Stop Plutocracy in the City of London

Whether London is at number one or number one hundred in the Z/Yen global financial centers index is a matter of indifference to us. What we want is an end to the undemocratic business vote system that sustains plutocracy in the City of London! The residents living under this council have as much right to a democratic local authority as the rest of the UK. It’s a scandal we currently have virtually no say in our local matters due to the dominance of business votes! Say no to business votes, say yes to democracy! Democratic electoral reform now!

RECLAIM EC1

No To Business Votes, Yes To Democracy!

The City of London Police Budget Deficit, Taylor Wimpey’s The Denizen & Top Cop Dave Clark

Castle Baynard Election: A Beautiful Farce

Diversity & Freemasonry At The City of London Council

Stop Plutocracy in the City of London