Sue Pearson Retires As Cripplegate Alder & Endorses Liz King To Succeed Her

Many people go into politics because there’s something wrong with them – typically an infantile need for attention and control. Their motive is to attain and maintain “power”, for which they’ll say and do whatever is expedient, regardless of truth or consistency. They cloak this motive by claiming to render public service, but it doesn’t ring true.

These people are especially prevalent in the City of London council. In 21 out of the City’s 25 wards, the “public” consists mainly of disengaged business voters, often in very small numbers. This makes it easy for poor candidates to get elected. Since most elected members of the City council don’t stand under the banner of a political party, there’s no party machine to filter out the worst of them. The disproportionate influence of freemasonry within the council also leads to men of weak character becoming members, smug in the knowledge they’ll be protected by their brethren if they do something wrong.

There are, though, some exceptions. A few people go into politics because they genuinely want to help others. Their focus is not on themselves, and they don’t shift their position for political advantage.

These exceptions can be found in the City council, but they are rare. One of them is Sue Pearson, the alder for Cripplegate ward, who will shortly stand down due to reaching the mandatory retirement age – to widespread astonishment, since she looks as if she could be two decades younger.

After a successful career as an architect, Sue settled in Cripplegate in 2006, first renting in the Barbican, then two years later buying her flat on Golden Lane Estate. There she has played an active part in community life, organising funding for the allotments, arranging tea and cakes for residents in the community centre on Christmas afternoon, and doing dozens of other useful things. She became so exasperated with the City council for letting the architectural gem of Grade II listed Golden Lane Estate fall into disrepair through decades of neglect that she decided to do something about it. Having had no previous involvement in politics, she stood for election as a councillor in her ward in March 2017.

She polled 558 votes – a hundred more than any of the other councillors in her large residential ward, and hundreds more than most other councillors in the rest of the City. It was the highest number of votes that any member had polled in modern City history, and reflected the high esteem in which she was held by her fellow residents. This outcome was, however, unwelcome to many of the leaders of the council, who governed in accordance with the masonic principles of unity, hierarchy and secrecy. There was no place in their little world for an independently minded woman who challenged their self-interested governance.

Less than a year after being elected, Sue won a small victory on the Planning Committee by getting an application that would affect many of her constituents considered by that committee after officers had recommended that it be delegated to a neighbouring authority. The leaders’ response was swift and vicious. They had her referred to the police for prosecution and brought before the council’s “Standards” Committee, both on an entirely bogus ground. They presumably thought it didn’t matter that the ground was bogus, because they expected her to be frightened into making a written apology and undertaking not to act like that again.

They made the mistake of judging her by their own standards. For a woman who has enjoyed ski-ing, motorcycling and rally driving, and has more courage than all the little men of the leadership clique put together, she wasn’t having it. For nine months she fought the case with legal support from councillor Graeme Harrower and moral support from councillors Mark Bostock and Marianne Fredericks. In spite of the full weight of the council being thrown against her, she prevailed. The referral for prosecution ended with an embarrassed email from the City Police Commissioner declining to investigate and a humble apology from the Town Clerk. The complaint to the mason-led “Standards” Committee, after passing through three kangaroo courts, ended with no sanction when it became obvious that the case was getting out of control.

But it was already out of control. The disclosure of the facts of the case shocked even the complacent majority of elected members. In April 2019, a petition declaring no confidence in the “Standards” Committee was signed by 1,200 City residents. Eventually, and after further blundering, this disgraced committee was abolished in early 2021 (scroll down link).

In the meantime, Sue continued to challenge the policies of the leadership clique with determination and calm courtesy, especially in the Planning Committee and the Community and Children’s Services Committee.

During the pandemic lockdowns, she was – as ever – active in her community. Together with fellow resident Jacqueline Swanson, she set up a local covid hub to link volunteers with people who needed help. Sue was instrumental in the operation of the Square Mile Food Bank established by Liz King, who subsequently became a councillor and will be standing to succeed Sue as alder.

Sue was one of a small group of councillors who in April 2021 launched a petition to reform the City council’s planning process that attracted 1,400 signatures. That process still needs radical reform, but a leadership proposal that small panels of members determine planning decisions instead of the whole committee didn’t survive the petition.

She was also one of a small group of councillors who in January 2022 succeeded in getting the City council to reverse a decision of its Community and Children’s Service Committee not to make a full refund to the City’s social housing tenants of amounts which the council had been overcharging them for their water supply for years.

Also in January 2022 she proposed a motion at a full council meeting that the council apply some of its wealth in renovating its dilapidated housing estates in a timely manner. The motion was defeated by the leadership and its followers, but damage was done to their position. The pressure for the council to behave responsibly has continued, while its “resident reset” PR initiative is failing. 

Sue stood again in the councillor elections in March 2022, and broke her own record by polling 686 votes, far more than any other of the 100 councillors.

A few months later, David Graves, then alder for Cripplegate, who had spent as much time representing the council to his constituents as he had done representing his constituents to the council, eventually resigned after overstaying in office for more than two years. Sue stood to succeed him in September 2022, and won by a predictable landslide. Her joining the Court of Alders, which is the senior body within the council, must have been a bitter pill to swallow for the bully boys who attacked her in her early years as a councillor.

Sue Pearson amid the alders: a sunbeam of sense amid their nonsense

Sue worked with fellow Cripplegate councillor Mark Bostock to repeal section 618 of the Housing Act 1985, an undemocratic measure that uniquely prevented City residential councillors from voting on housing matters affecting their constituents. This provision was finally repealed in December 2023, sadly a few months after Mark – another exceptional person – had passed away. Listen to this moving speech that Sue made about him at the council meeting on 7/9/23 at 1:04:40.

She has provided leadership to the eight councillors in her ward, with whom she has forged a team to work for the good of their constituents.

In alders’ committee meetings, she has continued to challenge the leadership. Watch her at 16:28 of this meeting on 6/2/24 speaking in support of fellow alder Martha Grekos  opposing a six month extension to the alders’ conventional six year term of office to validate retrospectively former Lord Mayor Nick Lyons overstaying in office for five months. Martha first became a member in March 2022, and has established herself as another genuine person.

In full council meetings, Sue has made some memorable interventions, such as at 56:28 in the meeting on 25/4/24, when she asked Chris Hayward, the Chair of Policy (= leader of the council) , the following question:

“Members of masonic lodges, like the Guildhall Lodge, are networking and establishing relationships behind closed doors and in rooms from which women are excluded. Are you seriously saying that these networks don’t extend into the Guildhall itself, and don’t disadvantage female members of this council?”

Hayward had to (sort of) say “yes” in reply, and in doing so made himself look ridiculous. He must think how much nicer it is in the Guildhall Lodge, where there are no women asking questions to which there is no good answer. The current master of that lodge, Michael Mainelli, who happens to be the current Lord Mayor, must think the same. He has for months been evading questions about why he let Sue’s guest to his own Lord Mayor’s banquet in November 2023 be disinvited a few hours beforehand at the initiative of a couple of members and officers. Their identities remain undisclosed, but it is reasonable to suspect that they resented her guest’s role in her prevailing in the bogus “standards” case five years earlier.

At the Court of Alders meeting on 14/5/24, the Town Clerk read out (at 6:55) Sue’s formal “letter of surrender of office” in the following terms: 

“I am writing to surrender my office as Alder for the Ward of Cripplegate, as I will shortly reach the mandatory retirement age.

It has been a privilege for me to have served the people of my ward for the past seven years, first as a Councillor and then as an Alder.

I urge members to remember that the service industries in the City that make our country rich are served by service industries made up of many of our resident electorate. I have fought for funding to provide decent homes for our social estates that have been so shamefully neglected for decades, and have spoken out against every unsuitable office development that would cause harm to people’s lives, the environment and our heritage.

I am proud to be associated with the long overdue repeal of section 618 of the Housing Act 1985 which after years of gagging has allowed our resident councillors to vote on housing matters.

I encourage my successor, and all Alders, to work for decency and fairness within the City of London Corporation, rejecting misogyny, bullying, prejudice and pettiness, governing with openness and accountability, not stopping debate by abusing standing orders and not smearing members who disagree.”

This letter was received in silence by most of the alders. Only Martha Grekos called out “Hear, hear!”. William Russell, who had six months earlier told Sue that a decision had been made to disinvite her guest – which Chris Hayward subsequently contradicted (couldn’t they at least get their story straight?) – had the awkward task of formally proposing acceptance of her letter, which he did at 8:52, while the words of the last sentence were still ringing in his ears.

The election of Sue’s successor is scheduled to take place on 4/7/24. That successor is expected to be her friend and colleague Liz King. Liz is a genuine person, as proved by her magnificent work in founding and running the Square Mile Food Bank during the pandemic before she became a councillor. We look to her to continue Sue’s good work as an alder, and to stand with Martha Grekos (as Sue has done) against the bully boys of the leadership clique.

Liz King, endorsed by Sue Pearson to succeed her as alder of Cripplegate

Sue’s departure from the council will be a huge loss to all who care about decency and fairness, which she has exemplified. She will, though, leave a rather different council from the one she joined. Her successful stand against corporate bullying and her determined advocacy for what is right have, together with the work of a handful of other members, demolished the self-confidence of the leadership clique. They’re losing their grip, and they know it.

Golden Lane residents have the consolation of knowing that Sue is taking on the role of chair of their residents’ association, and will remain as active among them as before: running the café at community events, baking cakes for the allotment’s social Sundays, and quietly doing good (which is very different from do-gooding) in many other ways.

The last word should be had by her fellow residents. After announcing at the Cripplegate wardmote on 20/3/24 that she would soon be standing down as alder, Sue was presented with flowers and received a standing ovation from the many people present. If only all politicians could be like her, instead of the way most of them are….