Stuff The City of London’s Centre For Music! If We Need A New Classical Concert Hall Build It In Merton!

A few weeks after the mid-January release of plans for Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s dog’s dinner of a Centre For Music building on the site of the current Museum of London, comes news of an ambitious project to build a new classical music venue in Wimbledon (part of the Borough of Merton) in south-west London. Since there is already a concert hall in The Barbican Arts Centre, and another a few minutes away in the form of LSO St Luke’s on Old Street, it is clearly pointless building yet another classical music hangout within easy walking distance of these two existing auditoriums. What many local people want is more social housing, so why not use the Museum of London site to deliver the council flats the City of London has promised but so far failed to build?

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Bronek Masojada Elected As Billingsgate Alderman With Fewer Votes Than He’s Had Birthdays!

Hiscox insurance boss Bronek Masojada was elected to the post of Billingsgate alderman with a grand total of 52 votes on 31 January 2019, after controversial hard-right City of London councillor Matthew Richardson stood down. 108 votes were split between five nominally independent candidates; a sixth candidate, Social Democratic Party representative Jonathan Bergdahl, got no votes. Since Billingsgate ward has three councillors to represent an electorate of just a couple of hundred business voters, 108 votes represents a respectable 46% turn out. Influence is easily wielded when there is such a ridiculous small electorate and this is something that raises suspicions that the entire City of London council is not only completely undemocratic, but possibly also deeply corrupt.

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Yet Another Threat To City Of London Communities & Their Heritage!

Developers are trying to build a giant 21-storey tower block just three metres from Bevis Marks Synagogue, the historic and world-famous Sephardi shul in the City of London. Jews with a connection to the iconic building (and local gentiles fed up with the ongoing disregard of community needs and the richness of our architectural heritage, represented by this and other ‘developments’ such as The Denizen) now have less than two weeks to object, after a planning application was submitted for the glass-fronted retail and office block rising skywards just yards from the UK’s oldest synagogue. Sephardi leaders in the UK said it would “tower over” the Grade I listed 300-year old building and are now “calling the community to action,” urging people to write and tell City of London planners what they think.

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City of London VAT loophole will go to the European Court of Justice

While tax rates are mainly set at national level, Brussels tries to restrict how far governments can go in lowering VAT rates to lure business, while allowing countries to introduce specific carve-outs. Brussels opened “infringement proceedings” against the UK on the issue last year, following talks between EU and UK officials dating back to 2015. The UK government declined to comment but officials have previously said the VAT treatment was “vital” to ensure the City remained a world-leading hub for commodities trading.

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Miranda Brawn & City of London Awardwashing

Given the glass ceiling on top jobs in the City of London and this local authority’s notorious lie machine, it is not surprising to find the utterly undemocratic and business vote dominated local council awardwashing the situation by picking 100 women to receive the Freedom of the City as a way of ‘marking’ the centenary of women getting the vote. More of an eye-opener is the fact that diversity campaigner Miranda Brawn has chosen accept this bauble despite the council failing dismally to tackle gender discrimination on its own patch.

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City of London Vote On Aung San Suu Kyi

A vote to remove Aung San Suu Kyi’s Freedom of the City of London was passed yesterday in the Court of Common Council, this body will now write to the Myanmar leader and await her reply before deciding whether to proceed. It doesn’t look like Ian Paisley Jr, paedophile Keith Harding or other unsavory characters will have their Freedom of the City of London removed any time soon, since even Suu Kyi is hanging on to hers for now. Press coverage today in City A.M., The Evening Standard and City Matters made it clear that those opposing the move to strip Suu Kyi of this ‘honour’ included top freemasons Jamie Ingham Clark and Chris Hayward.

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The Crossrail Art Foundation & City of London Artwashing

We call on all those involved in the culture industry and more specifically those commissioned by or involved in commissioning for The Crossrail Art Foundation to boycott this organisation and any work it manages to install on the ‘Elizabeth Line’. Beneficiaries of these commissions and commissioning agencies currently include Spencer Finch, Darren Almond, Richard Wright, Douglas Gordon, Simon Periton, Yayoi Kusama, Conrad Shawcross, Michal Rovner, Chantal Joffe, FutureCity, Lisson Gallery, White Cube, Sadie Coles HQ, Victoria Miro, Whitechapel Gallery and PACE. To what extent these individuals and art organisations were aware of the nefarious activities of the City of London when they involved themselves with the Crossrail Art Foundation is unclear, but once they’re alerted to what’s going on unless they actively support the City of London’s anti-democratic agenda we would expect them to drop this connection.

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