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Graeme Harrower's Blog (13)

CITY’S STANDARDS COMMITTEE ABOLISHED

In January 2018, a resident councillor of unimpeachable integrity successfully challenged the City of London Corporation on behalf of her constituents. Two weeks later, the Corporation referred her for prosecution which proved to be entirely groundless, and for two prejudiced hearings by its Standards Committee. The whole process cost tens of thousands of pounds of public money, and resulted in no sanction.

 

In December 2018, two motions were…

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Added by Graeme Harrower on March 25, 2021 at 19:00 — No Comments

POSTPONING DEMOCRACY IN THE CITY

Below is the text of an email I sent today to all members of the Court of Common Council (the City Corporation’s elected governing body) about the proposed postponement of the elections of the City’s 100 councillors from March 2021 to March 2022. 

 

What little democracy there is in the City shouldn’t be postponed by a year for no good reason. But I expect that the postponement of these elections will receive overwhelming support from members of the Court at its meeting on…

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Added by Graeme Harrower on September 7, 2020 at 15:30 — 2 Comments

ALDERMAN POSTPONES DATE FOR HIS RE-ELECTION

The election for alderman in Cripplegate Ward has been postponed....
 
David Graves, the alderman for Cripplegate Ward (which covers Golden Lane Estate and part of the Barbican) reached the end of his six year term of office on 17 June 2020.
 
The archaic conventions that govern this archaic public office require that upon the expiry of the term of office of an alderman, he or she submits a “letter of…
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Added by Graeme Harrower on July 19, 2020 at 19:30 — 23 Comments

CITY CORPORATION’S PROPAGANDA AGAINST GOLDEN LANE

Below is the text of an email that I sent today to all members of the Court of Common Council (the City Corporation’s elected governing body). It covers two subjects.

 

First, it satirises the lack of democracy in the City Corporation. As 80% of members of the Court of Common Council are elected mainly by tiny numbers of generally uninterested business voters - a system unique to the City - the Corporation cannot claim to be a democratic institution. For background, see…

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Added by Graeme Harrower on May 11, 2020 at 14:56 — No Comments

CITY CORPORATION CONTINUES TO FAIL RESIDENTS

QUESTIONS WITH NO ANSWERS

On Friday 24 April, in a live streamed virtual meeting of the City Corporation’s Community and Children’s Services Committee, the Chair was asked questions about the Corporation allowing non-essential construction work to restart on one of its own developments within touching distance of its own densely populated Golden Lane estate.

 

For the background, see:…

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Added by Graeme Harrower on April 27, 2020 at 16:12 — 2 Comments

THE LORD MAYOR AND THE ELEPHANT



A previous post The Last Word…Standards Committee Climb Down and Spin illustrates how the City Corporation spins its mistakes into achievements. It’s done it again. Here’s a press release announcing a reform of the selection process for the Lord Mayor: …

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Added by Graeme Harrower on March 8, 2020 at 16:53 — No Comments

CITY CORPORATION FORCED TO CONFRONT WINDS OF CHANGE

On 11 February the Telegraph published this article describing some of the many issues affecting the City Corporation:  City of London Corporation forced to confront winds of change…
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Added by Graeme Harrower on February 13, 2020 at 12:00 — No Comments

THE LAST WORD….Standards Committee Climb Down and Spin

The recent climb down by the City Corporation's Standards Committee over its dispensations policy was a victory for residents. The Standards Chair, though, has tried to spin it as an achievement of her committee. What follows is her “delighted” announcement and my satirical response, which reminds the Court of Common Council that it was the persistence of residents that compelled the Standards Committee to reverse its policy.

 

The fact that in a period of more than a…

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Added by Graeme Harrower on February 10, 2020 at 16:00 — 1 Comment

DOWNFALL OF THE CITY CORPORATION'S DISPENSATIONS POLICY

This is the text of an email that I sent to all members of the Court of Common Council on 27 January:

SUMMARY

During the last 15 months, the Standards Committee has done a 170 degree turn on its dispensations policy, ending with the decision at its meeting last Friday to abandon the restriction on granting dispensations to vote “only in exceptional circumstances”, and to require democracy to be taken into account when granting such…

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Added by Graeme Harrower on January 27, 2020 at 11:00 — No Comments

The latest on the City’s “standards” shambles….

For the last five months, three resident councillors have been trying to obtain general “dispensations” from the City’s standards committee to speak and vote on behalf of their constituents on matters which affect those councillors no more than any of their constituents. In any other local authority, where 100% of the councillors are elected by residents, it would be taken for granted that councillors speak and vote on matters affecting those who elected them. But in the City, where…

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Added by Graeme Harrower on January 23, 2020 at 10:00 — No Comments

The Standards Committee fails again….

TEXT OF AN EMAIL FROM COUNCILLOR HARROWER TO THE COURT OF COMMON COUNCIL ON 8 OCTOBER 2019 

 

The Standards Committee fails again….

The Standards Committee, at its meeting last Friday, did not abandon its policy of granting residential councillors dispensations to vote “only in exceptional circumstances", and will thus continue to disenfranchise the City’s residential electorate. It also failed to hold a proper vote…

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Added by Graeme Harrower on October 10, 2019 at 10:00 — No Comments

Standards Committee meets because of the residents’ petition, and.... IGNORES it!

Dear Resident

Concern over standards in the City Corporation is increasing as some members of the Standards Committee devise increasingly bizarre excuses to resist the erosion of its power over residential councillors.

For example, in the Dispensations Sub-Committee meeting on 4 June, a "co-opted" (meaning…

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Added by Graeme Harrower on September 8, 2019 at 9:30 — No Comments

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