The City of London, is the very historic centre of the capital of England and contains primary business centre of London. The City or the Squarfe Mile as it is also known holds a very powerful position in the UK.
In this post we will expand on our previous post about the city of london. We all know london one of the most well-known capital cities in the world. Situated in the southeast of england it has been a major trading post for thousands of years. In the last couple of hundred years london has developed into a major financial and business center, not so well known is the fact that there are two places called london.
There is london the large metropolis we all know and then there is the city of london, a small area housed within the greater metropolis this area is approximately one square mile and is sometimes called the city or the square mile. The city is quite detached from greater london it has its own laws, lord mayor and police force. Also as a financial body it owns and runs several major assets outside its boundary tower bridge is one of five london bridges owned and maintained by the bridge house estates. A charitable trust overseen by the city of london corporation this was formed by the city in 1282 and initially raised its funds through tolls. The other bridges run by bridge house estate are london bridge, southwark bridge, millennium bridge and black Friars bridge.
It is interesting that so many of the major bridges are owned by this charity, in addition to this the city also manages large areas of land outside the city itself. Some of these are hamsted heath, epping forest, burnham beach, highgate wood and queen’s park. Again you might wonder why the city owns this property.
It is reported that the city has a representative in parliament, the remembrancer whose job it is to protect the city’s special rights. The laws passed by parliament sometimes don’t apply to the city, voting reforms being the most notable of recent laws/ Regarding the voting in the city there are 25 electoral wards in four of the wards the 9 000 people who live within its boundaries get to vote. In the remaining 21 wards the votes are controlled by business these are mostly banks and financial companies the larger the business the more votes they get.
A company with 10 workers gets two votes and the largest company gets 79 in these companies. The bosses appoint the voters and therefore control the votes there are four layers of elected representatives in the corporation, common councilman, alderman, sheriffs and the lord mayor.
So how do you start your trek to become elected first to qualify for any offices you have to be a freeman of the city. Unlike the freemen of other cities you must be approved by the aldermen, the best way to qualify for this is to belong to one of the city library companies. These are medieval guilds such as the worshipful company of costa mongers, cutlasses and safe crackers no this isn’t a joke.
If you aim to be become a sheriff you must be elected from among the ottoman by delivery. Do you get how well sewn up this is, if lord mayor is your goal you will have to first have served as an alderman and sheriff and you must command the support of and have the endorsement of the court of alderman and delivery.
In other words have their backing, being rich will also help as the mayor is expected to make a contribution from their own resources towards the costs of the mayoral year. Because the city of london corporation exists outside many of the laws and democratic controls of the united kingdom the city is the only area of britain over which parliament has no authority. This power of the city only extends as far as the boundaries of the square mile.
Over the years uk governments have attempted to implement more democratic features to the city of london all of these have failed due to its financial strength. The city over the years has taken advantage of this unique position to establish a kind of offshore state actually within the uk. In effect a secret jurisdiction with the control of a network of tax havens housed in the uk’s overseas territories this state within a state is well placed to carry out all manner of activities. Which may elsewhere be frowned upon.
This autonomous state within a state could in effect render any attempt to regulate the global finance markets nigh on impossible. The city of london regulates itself therefore if a company does not like the rules laid down by its own country it could establish a company in the city of london whose rules may be more relaxed. Therefore ensuring the rules of the city apply to the company that actually does its work elsewhere. It would be difficult to believe that there are no conspiracies going around about this sort of arrangement
