Mason Edward Goodchild, Clockwork Liveryman Jani Levanen, Plastic Man Gerard O’Sullivan & Barrister David Williams Stand In Farringdon Within City Council By-Election

On the same day as the national election in the UK on 4 July 2024, there is a local council by-election in the City of London’s Farringdon Within ward. Below we provide a rundown of the four candidates – Edward Goodchild, Jani Levanen, Gerard O’Sullivan and David Williams. All are standing as ‘independents’. There is […]

Michael Mainelli Shouldn’t Be Lord Mayor Of London Due To His Role In Celebrating Slaver John Cass & The Fact His Election Was Rigged

Michael Mainelli acted as a star turn at the annual City celebration of the slaver John Cass just three years ago in 2020. He appears to have been so taken with the 2020 slave trader celebration – which included a private session for ‘grandees’ in The Painted Room of The Aldgate School – that two weeks later he tweeted about the racist images there calling them ‘treasures’.

Public Art In The City Of London: The Problematic Case Of The World Reimagined

From our long look at the World Reimagined, as well as other City of London council projects such as its Historic Landmarks Consultation, it seems our local authority only wants to acknowledge what it can’t dodge and still hopes to conceal much of its unsavoury history. The City of London’s unwillingness to deal systematically and seriously with problematic historic memorials – something neighbouring Hackney council has done impeccably – is indicative of its unwillingness to deal resolutely with the obvious inequalities as regards its top civic posts. To date of the 693 people to be Lord Mayor of London – the council’s top post – 691 have been white men and 2 have been white women.

Time For City of London & Islington Councils To Get Together To Remove The John Cass Slaver Plaque From Fortune Street Park

In our initial coverage of Islington’s problematic memorials we made no mention of the slaver inscription on the eastern gate post of Bunhill Fields Burial Ground which is run by the City but located just outside its boundaries in Islington. We did mention elsewhere that the names of the slavers and former City lord mayor’s Thomas Bludworth and John Lawrence can be seen on this gate. What we haven’t commented on before is the plaque in Fortune Street Park bearing slaver John Cass’s name which also requires removal and the involvement of the City of London council to do so.

On Councillor Caroline Addy’s Absurd Response To David Olusoga Calling Out The City Of London Over Its Racist Memorials

Not only are we unimpressed by Addy’s work as co-chair of the Tackling Racism Taskforce, we find her willingness to serve on the City council under lord mayors such as William Russell and Vincent Keaveny -who both recently took star turns in the annual celebration of slaver John Cass – disturbing. On top of this Addy is part of the Temple & Farringdon Together councillor slate that includes Edward Lord, who has also in the recent past enthusiastically bigged up not only the slaver John Cass but the major slave owner William Beckford. Lord is a self-styled ‘diversity champion’ who has an extremely poor record on most intersectional issues. Given all this, Addy’s response to David Olusoga doesn’t just smack of self-justification, it’s pathetic.

City School Ditches John Cass Slaver Name, Its Racist Paintings Must Go Too!

None of the stories we’ve seen about the Sir John Cass’s Foundation Primary School changing its name mentioned whether Robert Robinson’s seventeenth-century racist panel paintings that are housed in the school building will be taken away. We reproduced Madge Dessers’s critique of these pictures towards the end of a piece we posted in June. We also noted in a number of recent posts that top City of London council officials – including current lord mayor William Russell – have posed in front of these racist images for photo ops when attending the annual celebration of slave trader John Cass. We would hope that there are plans in place to remove Robinson’s racist paintings from the school but given the past form of those involved we wouldn’t assume this to be the case until we see a statement from them saying so. Likewise we’d hope the huge red feather – the symbol of John Cass – has been or will be removed from the outer wall of the school, but again none of the news reports we’ve seen mention it.

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Aldgate School