71–80 of 126 posts
"In fact, the City of London is so independent that it has its own flag, crest, police force, ceremonial armed forces, and a mayor who has a special title, the Right Honorable, the Lord Mayor of London. Oddly enough, if the monarch wants to enter the City of London, she first must ask the Lord Mayor for permission" Are there some books that comprehensively cover several aspects around the City of London? The City of…
CGP Grey has a delightful video explaining this: "The Secret City inside of London Revealed" (2012) https://youtu.be/LrObZ_HZZUc Highly recommended.
CPG Grey's videos re the City are a bit of fun that he slapped together in two or three days, not documentaries.
It made me realize the larger studios and productions have access to lots of accurate “fluff” like historical reels. They even have budgets to take real crews to locations. Makes me rethink the amount of time I spend on YouTube.
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I'd go with something more like "secretive" than explicitly "secret". It's a weird & immensely powerful place in the UK, with some abstruse governing structures, hidden entirely in plain sight.
Secretive? As in run by Committees that meet in public with agendas and minutes published on the City's website in accordance with the Local Government Act 1972.
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Yes quite correct. The Corporation is a local council, it collects the bins and operates one primary school. There's always this misconception that it's some sort of lawless wild west. If it was, I assure you every company in the world would be based there!
> The Corporation is a local council, it collects the bins and operates one primary school. Is that all it runs? > There's always this misconception that it's some sort of lawless wild west. I don't view it that way. > I assure you every company in the world would be based there! How many financial companies in the world are based there?
Many, for sure. Plenty more are headquartered in Canary Wharf, which is not in the City but in Tower Hamlets. These include Barclays, HSBC and Citigroup.
> The secret City of London which is not part of London The City is part of London under any normal person's interpretation of that word. Being as charitable as possible, it is true that the ceremonial county of Greater London does not contain the City. But the Greater London administrative area does. It's also not "secret". Many people aren't aware of it, but that's through ignorance on their part rather than secrec…
Greater London is made up of 32 London Boroughs and the City of London that provide the vast majority of municipal services. Each has a mayor or Lord Mayor. The powers and responsibilities of London Boroughs, and the local authority responsibilities of the City of London Corporation are set out in statute law, not delegated by the Mayor of London. The Mayor of London is responsible for public transport, Fire and Resc…
Personally I'd enthusiastically vote for a return to the pre-2000 system as it's not at all clear to me what these people do for us or what we gain from giving them all this money.
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It's not well known in America. Recent conversations on congestion surcharges in NYC regularly confused the charges in City of London (miniscule) with London as a whole (huge), and then tried to draw the comparison to the now-canceled charges in NYC, which would have affected more than half of Manhattan, and a large portion of the most significant commercial areas of NYC. People are either being completely disingenuo…
What are you talking about the London congestion charge is analogous to the NYC one, covering the core central business district.
I’m probably being overly pedantic but it’s not a secret
Also some pretty interesting tax and voting rules there ... Corporations get a vote, pretty much meaning they run the place. https://www.thecollector.com/what-makes-the-city-of-london-u... There's a good book called "treasure islands" all about tax havens... The city definitely features.
City of London Ward Lists consist of c19,000 individuals, who have one vote each. Corporations voting = urban myth
It's true that the vote is exercised by the company's nominee, not the company itself, but that's only because the company itself can't show up at the polling station. Business voters are expressly included to represent their organisations[0], and do.
[0]: https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/about-us/voting-elections/bu...
"In fact, the City of London is so independent that it has its own flag, crest, police force, ceremonial armed forces, and a mayor who has a special title, the Right Honorable, the Lord Mayor of London. Oddly enough, if the monarch wants to enter the City of London, she first must ask the Lord Mayor for permission" Are there some books that comprehensively cover several aspects around the City of London? The City of…
The City of London certainly has its own coat of arms. Phrasing that as "its own crest" is a bit weird. (The crest is only part, and by no means the most important part, of a heraldic achievement. The escutcheon is the important bit.) Arms: Argent a cross gules, in the first quarter a sword in pale point upwards of the last. Crest: On a wreath argent and gules a dragon's sinister wing argent charged on the underside…
Ditto police forces: although most smaller authorities' police have merged into larger county or larger forces, there's nothing odd in principle about a municipal police force. The City's is strange, in that it's entirely enclaved within the Met, but there are plenty of oddities out there (the Mersey Tunnels Police, say).
There are several ancient cities with 'Lord' mayors, including York.