CityandLivery

The City of London's electoral system is rather different from other towns and cities in the UK and apt to attract excitable articles in the press and media that are almost always based upon ill informed, biased opinion that lacks an objective, factual basis. The differences in the electoral system in the City are a product of its very long and complex history (spanning over 1,000 years) and its unique status as a city which has approximately 100 commute in workers (circa 513,000, 2018 Corporation of London) for every registered resident voter (circa 5,500, 2016 Corporation of London). This combination of long and complex history and unique status has resulted in three different electorates: The residents The business voters (some of whom are residents, most are commuters) The livery This article explores each of these electorates and their involvement with the election of the City's government. The Residents The residents are perhaps the easiest electorate to u...

The London cabbie is an iconic symbol and a national treasure known and recognised the world over. I was raised to believe that the London cabbie was the gold standard of taxi driver and their knowledge of London lore was second to none. When it came to deciding who would be best man at my wedding, the choice was simple and a London cabbie did the honours. Recently my bubble of confidence in the London cabbie has been burst by a series of embarrassing tweets from cabbies unable to differentiate between the Lord Mayor of (the City of) London and the Mayor of London. In my view no self-respecting London cabbie should be plying for hire on the streets of London who does not know the difference and is unable to give a potted history of the office of Lord Mayor over his (or her) left shoulder to a captive audience while the meter is running. An exception might be made for the suburban cabbie who never strays beyond Edmonton or Catford, but no Green Badge cabbie (i.e., one permitted to w...

Most Freemen or Liverymen (both terms import both genders) of a City of London Livery Company will have a good understanding of their own Company and perhaps a general awareness of the other Livery Companies operating in the City. The particularly motivated Liveryman might even be a member of more than one Livery Company and there are a small number of Liverymen who have connections with Guilds and Merchant Companies outside of London. However awareness of the provincial Guilds is at best vague and more typically a mystery to most among the City Livery Companies. Awareness of the provincial Guilds is often no better in the cities where they exist, even less so when the Guilds have expired leaving only an association of Freemen such as is the case in Lincoln and Norwich, both cities had a substantial number of Guilds modelled on their London brethren for which there is plenty of evidence in their respective Guildhalls. Arms of the defunct Norwich Goldsmiths' Company, similar t...

Throughout this year I have been immensely honoured to attend as a guest of (and sometimes speaker to) a number of livery companies other than my own. This cooks' tour of companies has given me the opportunity to observe and interact with the different organisational cultures that exist among the livery at close quarters. The most recent of my outings was as guest of a Bowyer who shared with me his perspective on how these diverse cultures fit into a common framework that ensures commonality of purpose while allowing each company to follow its own path. My host drew a comparison with the Commonwealth of Nations, an organisation that embraces many different countries, cultures and ethnicities but does so with a common set of values and language under a single unifying authority. I found this comparison with the Commonwealth a particularly good model for explaining the similarities and differences among the Livery Companies, let me explain further: Common Objectives The Commo...

I have recently been researching the City's various links with Australia and New Zealand in preparation for a speech I will be delivering to the Worshipful Company of Butchers in early October. As with so much else about the City and its Livery Companies, there is much to be discovered - often hiding in plain sight but poorly documented and little known outside of the circles that have a reason to know. The following list of links vary from historical one offs to ongoing relationships. At the time of writing there are serious moves afoot to establish associations of Freemen and Liverymen in Australia and a newly formed one in New Zealand. Perhaps in the future we will see an Antipodean equivalent of The Honourable Company of Freemen of the City of London of North America (yes there is such a thing) form in those countries. If that Bonzer Company of Freemen of the City of London Down Under (a working title of my own invention) does come to fruition, it may be helpful to give th...