I hope they have their cameras turned on.
Somebody will need to televise the
brutality that this political movement
will face.
This movement will not use stupid little
explosives. No, I mean they will try
the most dangerous move the world has
ever seen. It will take on Mamon
(that's Big Money, to you and me).
I ask you: what would help hasten
the collapse of the banksters?
Getting control of the City of London
Corporation must rank very high. If,
that is, the Corp can affect the banks
that actually run the show. I'm not so
sure, but the symbolism is mind-blowing.
The City Corp are some pretty tough catsos.
You'd say:
But, they've got government protection..
but, they've got a one-company-
many thousands of votes- policy
But, they've got corrupt police
and you'd be right.
William the Conqueror, who didn't get his name
from picking roses, gave up and signed a deal
with the Corp, in the 11th century, dudes!
This Corp are some Medieval f*dderm*ckers.
So, a new political movement is
up to trying the impossible. to get
elected to run THE Corp.
One of the pillars of the Bankster state
is being gnawed on, ever so politely.
I hope they literally get bloodied, and show
the world. It was worth your lives, boys.
checkit:Guardian
Alliance
of Labour, Ukip and Occupy members attempt to reform City of London
Ahead
of elections this month to the City of London Corporation, an unlikely
political alliance is pressing for radical reform and greater accountability
from an institution where many ancient traditions continue to hold sway
Ben Quinn
guardian.co.uk, Monday 11 March 2013 14.25
GMT
It’s
an unlikely political alliance: members of Labour and Ukip, veterans of the
Occupy movement, clerics and non-party political newcomers — all signed up to
an agenda backed by, among others, the Tory MP David Davis.
Yet
after last month’s Eastleigh byelection pointed the way towards a possible
breaking of the mould in British politics, the slate of candidates assembled
under the umbrella of the City Reform Group are seeking to do just that for the
local authority that governs the country’s powerful financial heart - the
Square Mile.
Ahead
of elections this month to the City of London Corporation, the group is
pressing for radical reform and greater accountability from an institution
where many ancient traditions continue to hold sway, along with unprecedented
scrutiny of a £1.3bn "private" account which the public body has
cloaked in secrecy and used for lobbying on behalf of the financial sector.
With
tensions are already running high in the poll amid allegations of intimidation
of candidates and the sending of anonymous emails, the City Reform Group’s
arrival has further raised the stakes.
For
Shanaz Khan, a restaurateur whose first taste of politics is as a CRG
candidate, the election is an opportunity to shake up a body which she says
resembles an "old school boys’ network".
"It’s
that one square mile where the local councillors have a budget of more than
£1bn. That level of power in quite a small number of people is quite unique so
it’s really important to change the ethos and culture and open up dialogue with
the community beyond the financial services,” she added.
Khan
and her colleagues accuse the Corporation of “failing to live up to its
leadership role” at a time when the City, which is home to hundreds of banks
and is described as the world’s premier financial centre, has been rocked by
crisis.
The
theme of improving transparency is meanwhile what attracted another CRG’s
candidates, Peter Lucas, a Ukip member, who said: “I have always been a
believer in transparency but in a lot of ways the City of London Corporation is
so archaic, being run as if it was still in the 18th century. There are secret
funds which are not subject to full public scrutiny while it just seems to
focus on shamelessly promoting the financial services sector.”
Other
CRG candidates include William Campbell Taylor, an east London vicar who has
been a long-standing opponent of the way the City is run, the Oscar-nominated
dramatist and novelist Jonathan Myerson, and Robin Ellison, a former chairman
of the National Association of Pension Funds who stood as an independent in the
last general election on a ticket of reforming the pensions system. Ten Labour
candidates are also standing in support of the CRG’s aims, which have been
endorsed by Davis, the former chair of the Future of Banking Commission, and
others, including Simon Walker, director general of the Institute of Directors,
City
Reform Group: Shanaz Khan, William Taylor and Jonathan Myerson, who are running
in elections City Reform Group: Shanaz Khan, William Taylor and Jonathan Myerson,
who are running in elections to be councillors on the City of London
Corporation. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian
Elections
to the corporation differ markedly from those elsewhere. Businesses as well as
individual residents of the City can vote and bodies including banks and others
based in the City can nominate voters based on the size of their workforce.
Party politics has also largely been absent from the Corporation, where the
current councillors sit as independents, despite many being members of
political parties.
They
include Mark Clarke, a Conservative party member who was elected in a
byelection last year and who mounts a robust defence of how the City is
governed and accused the CRG of being a “front” for the Occupy movement.
“Bizarrely,
they seem to believe that the Corporation of the City of London should have
some role in regulating banks, but the idea that a local council should play a
role in that way is absurd. You wouldn’t go to Sheffield and say that the
council was involved in regulating the steel industry,” said Clarke.
“It’s
also the job of the Corporation of the City of London to lobby on behalf of the
financial services industry in the same way as, for example, the council in
Sheffield would lobby on behalf of its primary industries.”
Clarke
also defends Corporation funds such as the City Cash fund, which he says has
been prudently managed for hundreds of years, to a point where there the
authority is able to use the interest accumulated to fund charities and good
causes.
Ahead
of next week's elections, however, temperatures have been increasing, according
to one veteran councillor, who used a meeting of the Corporation’s council last
week to raise concerns about alleged intimidation of some candidates.
“We
are not talking about horses' heads being left on pillows but there has been,
shall we say, some less than gentlemanly behaviour,” said Martin Dudley, an
Anglican priest who added that the intimidation had taken the form of
individuals being “warned off” standing in certain wards.
“There
have been a few telephone calls made and at least one anonymous email sent.
When the ISP was checked it turned out that the source of the email was the
House of Parliament, which might tell you something about the sender.”
