Finally a sensible decision from the government as the would have been eye sore, The Tulip, has been stopped. Proud to say that City Branch has played a small role in stopping it but the big accolades got to our GLA representative Unmesh Desai and London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

Read about it here

Read our Branch's resolution here

This is a rather bizarre exchange between a member and our MP Nickie Aiken:

Thank you for your email regarding yesterday’s non-binding opposition debate regarding Universal Credit.

Throughout the pandemic, the Government has been doing all it can support families on a low income. This has been done through a range of measures worth over £280 billion, including, the furlough scheme, a £500 million hardship fund, a £170 million Covid winter grant scheme and a £7 billion increase to welfare.

This is in contrast to the Labour Party who have made clear they wish scrap Universal Credit, a plan that would cost £55 billion and plunge nearly 5 million people into poverty. Rather than act constructively, Labour have used yesterday’s non-binding opposition debate to mislead people and cause division.

The Government has consistently stepped up its support for low income families and the most vulnerable in society and will continue to do so.

I did not vote for or against the Labour Party’s motion as I do not believe such an important issue as welfare should be used as a political points exercise. Thank you once again for taking the time to write to me.

Yours sincerely,

Nickie Aiken MP
Cities of London and Westminster

Office of Nickie Aiken MP

nickie.aiken.mp@parliament.uk
Tel: 0207 219 4553
www.nickieaiken.org.uk
Find me as @twocitiesnickie on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter.

Dear Nickie Aiken,

Thank you for replying to my email.

Am I right in understanding that you are suggesting in your email that Labour want to completely scrap the welfare system in the UK, offering zero support to anyone on a low income, in receipt of disability benefit or for the unemployed?

Can you further assure me that given your stated commitment to ensuring support for those on low incomes, that you are reversing your position on providing school meals to eligible children throughout school holidays and that you are seeking for the chancellor to put long term additional support into his budget as called for from, amongst others the Labour Party and the Rowntree Foundation?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Private equity is draining British business dry by Nicholas Shaxson

‘Levelling up’ won’t work if companies are asset stripped and profits spirited out of communities...

Please have a look at this new campaign to save our NHS. Sign the petition and write to your MP because the NHS really does need you and we need it.

From our member Marge Berer to our MP Nickie Aiken asking her about her thoughts on the NHS

This is on housing from another member:

How arbitrary definitions and a focus on ‘headline figures’ are exacerbating the housing crisis

Nowadays it takes just a quick scan of

the main newspapers to see the latest

on what the government is planning to

do to ‘help the people’. Slogans like

‘Build Build Build’ and ‘Jobs Jobs Jobs’ are recurring motifs – perfectly simple, sound bite morsels, that promise so much....Read more

A letter sent yesterday to The Guardian from three Labour Party Councillors and one Independent:

Scrapping plans to build a ‘perfect’ music venue in the City (19 February) will disappoint some but others see the opportunity for City of London Corporation to begin to repurpose the Square Mile.

Will the City demonstrate its leadership by using the buildings on the Museum of London site, including Bastion House to provide new mixed tenure homes and workspaces alongside nearby commercial properties?

We have been pressing this case since last year when the impact of the first Covid-19 wave was being felt. The lack of affordable housing in and around the City is recognised in the official housing strategy as an obstacle to future growth.

The Covid experience has reminded us of the importance of key workers and given a new emphasis to the health of local residents and workers. Hopes for hundreds of thousands of commuters to return to their former ways of working are probably misplaced.

Let’s not waste any more time pondering and use this site to give our key workers and young entrepreneurs an opportunity to live and work here, and applaud new investment in the Barbican Centre.

Signed by Helen Fentimen, Matthew Bell, Natasha Lloyd-Owen and Will Pimlott

This article A Letter to Sir Keir Starmer From A Member of the Working Class

gives the party a really good insight into the mind and thoughts of a person who would naturally vote Labour but is now not so sure what to do with his voice. Important reading!

The Great Game of Smashing Nations

More than a generation ago, Afghanistan won its freedom, which the U.S., Britain and their “allies” destroyed. On Afghanistan by John Pilger