*** First off, SAVE THE DATE 24th March 2022 to vote in the City’s ward elections. ***
The 100 Common Councillors elected will represent City workers and residents for the next three years.
My previous editor, Lawrence, will not like this but I have to yet again stray into politics. We must try and make our voice heard because the majority of the votes will actually be from workers, did you know?
In the City, you don’t have to be a resident to vote. You can be a sole trader, barrister, retail / bar / restaurant owner, charity, trade association, livery company, church, bank or hospital.
In fact, a company can have multiple votes depending on its size. Organisations with a workforce of nine or less can appoint one voter; those with up to 50 can appoint one voter for every five; those with more than 50 can appoint 10 voters and one additional voter for every 50 members of the workforce over the initial 50.
I picked a random bank and they have over 4000 employees. This equates to about 90 votes and this is just one bank. Personally, I can’t imagine that the nominated voters from a company pool would not toe the company line in the election of the Common Councillor favoured by their employer. With the added obstacle that Common Councillors who live in the Barbican (and there are plenty) cannot vote on anything to do with the Barbican Estate where there are financial interests like service charges, do you start to feel shrewdly silenced? How is a Common Councillor focused on their corporate voters interested in the residential areas in the City.
So it is vital that we elect our resident Common Councillors with the nouse to lobby the non-resident Councillors on our behalf. Of course, we’ll elect the neighbours we know, but in business which affects us, they have no teeth. So, if we must pick neighbours then let’s pick ones who have the time and energy to persuade their empowered non-resident colleagues – those who actually can vote – to sway our way.
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Thanks to Laura O’Gallagher for the photo of one of the stained-glass windows from Guildhall, tweaked with the creative graphic design of Alex Ross.
London Blue Badge guide Erin Summers interviews Eve Jones on the life of her husband and renowned hotelier Ronald F. Jones OBE.
With the importance of climate action at the global and local levels, Barbican Life is kicking-off a series of articles on sustainability. At home, the City of London has set ambitious emissions targets, including achieving net zero in the Square Mile by 2040. We all play a role in achieving the collective climate targets – this series will address climate interventions and the Barbican’s environmental impact. Note that the policy of the City is to reduce all cars, even electic ones (*1), so they are tending not to like installing EV chargers, lest they become a favoured charging stop-off point for the rest of Central London (*2).
Julien Waite expands our micro-worldview with a deep dig into the life of the hoverfly so you can do some fly-spotting as you walk the paths of EC2 again with Peter Savage and his exploration of the parish of St Luke’s.
Thank you to Suzy Waite for her article on Nic Martin Guerra’s secret garden at All Hallows-by-the-Tower Church near the Tower of London.
Exhibitions and theatre are thick for the picking; Janet Wells and Gary Donaldson preview some of the exhibitions, theatrical and dance productions for the coming months.
We continue with the series of articles from St Giles’ on the remarkable hub they have created for organ scholars and, last but not least, we celebrate the awesome winners of our 2021 competitions.
Hope you are nearly defrosted and have a spring in your step for the Barbican Association AGM on the 14 April 2022. See you there!
Thanks to you, our readers, and all of our generous contributors and regular advertisers!
The Barbican Life Team
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqhdKCfL6Q8 13 minutes in
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqhdKCfL6Q8 16:10 minutes in
