Billingsgate: theft in a City state

The same authority that hosted the bank crisis is taking away Billingsgate fish porters’ livelihoods This week the City of London Corporation is likely to withdraw all trading licences from the porters of Billingsgate fish market . The role of the porter has been recognised by the corporation since 1632: it was to uphold the ethics of the fish market, work honestly and “act in fellowship” with other porters. Take away the porters’ licences, and they become cheap casual labour – and if employed at all it will be by individual merchants rather as porters, licenced by corporation as a whole. The corporation, as the inheritor of property titles going back 1,000 years , fears that the market – and specifically the porters – stand in the way of its expansion plans around Canary Wharf. Without the porters, the bankers, property developers and financiers will be the sole inheritors of the ancient privileges, customs, rights and assets that go back to the establishment of the City of London almost a millennium ago. It is the final act in a story where the power of money has been asserted over the status of the people. It is a disgrace that shines a light on our failure to control finance capital even after the crisis of autumn 2008, yet nobody says a

Posted by on April 7, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.