City institution 1 Lombard Street reopens after lockdown June 22, 2021 The Lord Mayor and the City’s Sheriff visited Square Mile institution 1 Lombard Street yesterday as it reopened after lockdown. Monday was due to be the first day without Covid-19 restrictions in the UK, but the so-called ‘freedom day’ was pushed back by four weeks. Read more: There are staycations – and then there’s the [...]
Change Starts Together June 16, 2021 The Lord Mayor’s appeal has launched a new storytelling campaign ‘Change Starts Together’ which aims to tackle the pressing issue of social mobility. Right now, Social Mobility has become a timely and important issue, as we see the huge impact the pandemic has had on those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. According to the Social Mobility [...]
Waterloo & City line re-opens ahead of schedule as tube use rises June 7, 2021 Waterloo & City line re-opens ahead of schedule as tube use rises
London’s ‘unsung bridge’ lights up to mark its 100th birthday June 4, 2021 It has survived a bombing during the Blitz, witnessed tragedy on the Thames and appeared in a Harry Potter film… this weekend one of London’s unsung bridges marks its 100th birthday. Unlike most centenarians, Southwark Bridge won’t get a telegram from the Queen, but it did receive a royal christening, opened amid pomp and ceremony [...]
City has lost a great green advocate but the fight will continue May 31, 2021 Last week the City of London, and dare I say the world, lost a key advocate of the role the financial sector plays in the fight against climate change. Sir Roger Gifford, Lord Mayor of the City of London in 2012-13 and Chair of the Green Finance Institute, was instrumental in driving forward the green [...]
Former Lord Mayor of London Sir Roger Gifford passes away at 65 May 26, 2021 The well-known London banker and 685th Lord Mayor of London, Sir Roger Gifford, has passed away at the age of 65. Gifford served as UK head of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB) from 2000, and was also a patron of the financial education charity MyBnk. He started his career in finance at SG Warburg, where he [...]
Boris Johnson comments on women in burqas made Tories seem ‘insensitive’ to Muslims, says probe May 25, 2021 Anti-Muslim sentiment within the Tory party “remains a problem” and Boris Johnson’s comments on women in burqas created a sense that the party is “insensitive” to the community, according to a report into Islamophobia in the party. The independent report, authored by professor Swaran Singh, also said there was a “recurrent concern” among community groups [...]
Flood the streets with art: traffic-free weekends and an all-night celebration in the City for a cultural comeback May 24, 2021 The City’s reopening is building up to a crescendo with the return of visitors and audiences to some of the Square Mile’s iconic cultural institutions. One of the things that I – like many others – have missed the most during lockdown has been the opportunity to enjoy world-class art and culture in person rather [...]
Westminster must stop City of London ‘neglect’, says ex-Johnson adviser May 21, 2021 The government must stop its “policy of benign neglect” toward the City of London and urgently bring in financial services regulation reforms, according to Boris Johnson’s former economic adviser. In a report released by centre-right think tank Policy Exchange, Dr Gerard Lyons called for a strong stance on parting from the EU’s financial services regulations [...]
Sunderland ’til I die: Labour’s Jonathan Reynolds on reviving the Red Wall May 20, 2021 The highlight of Jonathan Reynolds’ Westminster office is a 1960 election poster of John F Kennedy that hangs above his desk. JFK sits over Reynolds’ shoulder as we speak as a kind of liberal guardian angel to the shadow work and pensions secretary. “Not a perfect President, but he brought hope and optimism,” Reynolds says. [...]