Singapore

City of London & Hong Kong Have More In Common Than Their Democratic Deficits

The City of London’s “charm offensive in the race for renminbi” has paid off, with London daily trading in renminbi now exceeding that in euro, the Financial Times reported. But this is only half the story, which is also about life after Brexit for Britain, and about the nation’s role in China’s “Belt and Road Initiative”. Some have suggested that post-Brexit Britain could become “another Singapore” by modelling itself on successful island economies. But in reality the City of London may be in process of becoming another Hong Kong. The key is that both Britain and its former colony are situated at either end of the Belt and Road project.

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Oliver Lodge, Freemasonry & The City of London Standards Committee

The committee Oliver Lodge heads has come under fire recently for being high-handed and bullying. The Standards Committee initiated proceedings against councillor Susan Pearson for speaking against a proposal to delegate a planning application to Islington Council. The matter was referred to police for potential prosecution and Pearson was informed of this via the City solicitor. After reviewing the matter the cops declined to further involve themselves in this attempt at gagging and intimidation. To outside observers it looks like the Standards Committee operates on double standards, with a very harsh set of rules for the minority of councilors elected to represent local residents, and another very lax set for those who hold positions of power acting as lobbyists for the finance and law industries thanks to undemocratic business votes.

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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!

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The Denizen: Where Dumb Meets Stupid

The proposed site of The Denizen is a few metres inside the City of London borough boundary, and Taylor Wimpey make far more of this than the location warrants; essentially these will be City fringe properties and like other developments in EC1 they are being marketed as ghost home investments to speculators in South East Asia. Potential victims of Taylor Wimpey’s disingenuous sales pitch in South East Asia will already be familiar with Denizen as a clothes brand owned by Levis but with jeans sold at ‘cheap and cheerful’ prices compared to the company’s ‘original’ products. Although Taylor Wimpey tap into hype about cheap jeans, their proposed development is over-priced and dingy; and life inside it is likely to be ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short’.

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