The Mayor’s Christmas service will recognize and celebrate the important work of select London organisations

An OPP investigation into an illegal cannabis distribution network in southwestern Ontario, with the help of the London Police Service, resulted in the seizure of over US$800,000 worth of illegal cannabis and cannabis-related products.

The investigation began in May after London Police submitted information to OPP and formed the Provincial Joint Forces Cannabis Enforcement Team (PJFCET).

On November 9, PJFCET executed three search warrants in the City of London and one in Woodstock.

Police seized approximately 110 kilograms of dried cannabis, five kilograms of cannabis resin, two kilograms of cannabis shatter, more than 4,500 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) vape pens, 170 vials of cannabis shatter, 280 THC bars and more than 5,000 THC gummies.

Nine hundred psilocybin gummies were also seized, along with 800 psilocybin bars, more than 1,000 pre-rolled cannabis cigarettes, 60 THC suckers, 55 milliliters of cannabis oil, 16 ounces of cocaine, more than 100 suspected oxycodone pills, more than 200 suspected Percocet pills and more than 150 suspected hydromorphone pills.

The estimated street value of the drugs seized is approximately $876,895, according to police.

In addition, officers seized more than $1 million in Canadian currency, two gold Rolex watches with an approximate value of $20,000 each, and three vehicles with an estimated combined value of more than $270,000 as crime-related property . A sawn-off shotgun with ammunition was also seized.

Five people, including four Londoners, have been charged with a total of 25 offences.

Kyle Catherwood, 28, Mariah King, 28, Keiryn Jacobs, 32, and David McNiven, 55, all from London, and Matthew Blumenstock, 31, from Woodstock, have been charged with a total of 25 offenses, including multiple possession of an illegal substance for the purpose of trade and theft.

They were released from custody upon arrest and are due to appear in court in January 2023.

The benefit – granted to around 1.3million people over 60 – was suspended for weekday travel before 9am shortly after the pandemic began in June 2020, mainly to ensure public transport remained free for key workers.

However, the Mayor is due to decide by the end of the year whether to keep the restriction permanent, which would result in fares of around £15million to £18million for transport for cash-strapped London.

Charity Age UK London will bring a petition signed by more than 10,000 people to City Hall on Tuesday afternoon calling for the benefit to be reinstated.

The permanent cancellation of freedom to travel before 9 a.m. is the “wrong decision at the wrong time” due to the cost of living crisis.

There are also concerns that the qualifying age for the 60+ Oyster, which gives Londoners free bus, tube and train travel until they receive the Freedom Pass at retirement age 67, is being raised each year to exclude more people .

Peter Henderson, 65, an NHS carer who signed the petition, said he spent around £30-35 a month getting home to Harlesden at 8am after a 12-hour night shift in Harrow.

He said the power withdrawal a week after Thursday night’s “Clap for the NHS” events ended “felt like a kick in the teeth”.

He said: “After being applauded one week, the next week I was asked to reach into my pocket. I accept that TfL has lost a lot of money during the pandemic, but asking the older and more vulnerable members of society is unacceptable.

“Not only do the reduced fares help those who have physical problems, for those living alone, being able to get around London instead of staring at four walls is a significant way to maintain and improve their mental health.”

A study by Age UK London found that 39 per cent of Londoners over 60 had to travel before 9am. More than a quarter went to work, while 31 percent attended health appointments. Eight percent had to travel to fulfill care responsibilities.

More than a quarter of respondents said the ban on free travel before 9am prevented them from making essential trips.

Mr Khan last December first announced proposals to increase the qualifying age for the 60+ Oyster by six months every year for the next 12 years – until it is effectively merged with the Freedom Pass, which is funded by London Councils.

However, the qualifying age has yet to change – and City Hall says a final decision on the 9am start time has yet to be made.

A spokesman for Mr Khan said: “The Mayor fully understands how concerned Londoners are about rising inflation, costs and survival.

“TfL’s finances have been decimated by the pandemic and the Government has imposed strict conditions under emergency funding arrangements to keep essential services running.

“He was forced to consider permanently restricting the use of the liberty passes for over-60s and older to after 9am and to consider a gradual increase in the eligibility age for the over-60 concession. However, no final decision has been made yet.”

The Lord Mayor’s Show is a mix of traditional buttoned-up pageantry and hilarious carnival. A bit like the State Opening of Parliament without all the MPs and Notting Hill without the jerk chicken.

I’m a freeman with the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, one of the City of London‘s ‘Great 12’ livery companies. The Lord Mayor’s Show is an event where the city’s car hire companies – there are around 110 in all – have a prominent place. In addition, as a member of the Company’s Court, the new Lord Mayor has a special connection to the Merchant Taylors. Which is all an awkward way of saying: I was harnessed to tonight’s show to ride a camel.

I read Justin Marozzi in hopes of finding tips on how to tie said camel, but to no avail. On a positive note, the weather appears to be dry and sunny, which is as close to Saharan conditions as one could hope for in November. Nonetheless, I haven’t been on a camel since I succumbed to the advances of an enterprising Bedouin in Giza as a teenager, and brace myself for a bumpy ride.

There are different considerations. I had particularly wondered about camel droppings. Am I expected, like any considerate townsman (no less than a Freeman!), to pick up my pet’s poop while we walk on? I’ve now been told to concentrate on staying upright on the camel’s back and that another notable townsman has turned up to collect droppings. After the Lord Mayor’s Show comes the garbage truck, as the saying goes.

The roots of the show are ancient. This year, Alderman Nicholas Lyons is set to become the city’s 694th Lord Mayor. In an attempt to win over the City of London, in the early 13th century the ill-fated King John allowed the city to appoint its own mayor (‘loyal, discreet and able to govern’) rather than having a sheriff appointed by the king , on condition that they come to Westminster every year to swear allegiance to the Crown. The procession that arose around the Mayor to accompany him on these annual trips to the Royal Courts of Justice became known as the Lord Mayor’s Show.

As the chief cheerleader of the city’s businesses and residents, international ambassador for Britain’s financial and services sectors and head of the City of London Corporation, the Lord Mayor has – all ceremonies aside – quite a hefty modern role. Lyons, who is taking time off from his position as chairman of insurer Phoenix Group, will focus his tenure on stimulating investment and growth, and improving London’s global productivity, under the motto “Financing our future”.

But the more esoteric parts of the role are certainly not neglected. One of the many of these ancient duties and privileges is to lead the annual sheep drive across London Bridge. Another is the right to assist the royal butler in serving drinks at the coronation banquet (the Mayor of Winchester is now entitled to assist the royal cook). In general, however, the Lord Mayor is the grand host rather than the staff: at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet (on the Monday after the show), the Prime Minister traditionally delivers the keynote speech, while the Chancellor delivers the “Mansion House Speech”, the bankers’ dinner in June and the Foreign Secretary steps up to the lectern at the Easter banquet. Certainly the host with the most.

The same mix of ancient and modern is manifested in the show. This year there are more than 130 floats in total – from cadet forces and corporations to ancient guilds and modern day charities. The locations specifically related to the new Lord Mayor (such as Wells-next-the-Sea, his hometown) are also included. It’s all delightfully eclectic. Bands of the Scots Guards and Welsh Guards come first, and not far behind are Gog and Magog, basket giants (made by the Worshipful Company of Basketmakers) who are the town’s traditional guardians. The Lord Mayor himself rides in the state carriage that was put into service in 1757 and is said to be the oldest regularly used ceremonial vehicle in the world. It has gilded bodies and side panels painted by Cipriani “representing London’s majesty, piety and global reach”.

The liveries that form the heart of the procession are a reminder of the city’s history and its modern purpose at the same time. Most maintain ties to their original craft. Originally a tailors’ association, Merchant Taylors, for example, is now primarily a philanthropic and educational organization – although it still proudly maintains its Savile Row ties and nurtures the next generation of British tailors through the biannual Golden Shears competition, the Oscars the tailoring world.

And the paint shops are not too quick to shed their old heritage. The Merchant Taylors’ Company is listed on the show’s website in both sixth and seventh place in the procession – a fitting tribute to the Company’s centuries-old rivalry with the Skinners for their respective places in the paint company hierarchy. In 1484 the then Lord Mayor, Sir Robert Billesden, settled the issue by decreeing that the two companies should swap places annually, an episode which is widely believed to have been the origin of the phrase ‘at six and seven’.

This year has given us no shortage of ancient rituals and pageantry for reasons of joy and tragedy, reminding us that these public spectacles—simultaneously solemn and frivolous—embody the very best of our country. The Lord Mayor’s Office – and the show that celebrates it – is an example of an institution that has simultaneously moved with the times to serve an important purpose while preserving the best of its history. The show has been immortalized over the years: in Shakespeare, in art – from Canaletto to Hogarth – and in pantomime (by Dick Whittington, of course). Samuel Pepys thought the 1660 show was a great day, where he met Lady Sandwich and all the children and drank a “strange and incomparably good Clarett”. You could and should do the same. To a triumph of British pomp and ceremony today.

The English National Opera, one of the country’s cultural flagships, is being relocated outside of London. It announced the move as England’s main funding body for the arts unveiled a new three-year agreement that will pull cash out of the capital.

The opera house will receive a £17million grant from Arts Council England (ACE) to develop a new business model at its new home after its overall funding was cut to zero in grants announced on Friday.

ENO said his crotch was marked “the beginning of a new chapter‘ and would ‘build new audiences and reach beyond London’. Its new base is expected to be Manchester, although ENO will continue to manage and perform from its London home, the Coliseum, while “maximizing it as a commercial asset”.

In addition to the specific grant to ENO, 24 arts organizations have received funding from ACE to relocate outside the capital by October 2024. The government earlier this year directed ACE to spend more money on arts organizations outside of London as part of its alignment programme.

“We just had to make some very uncomfortable decisions,” said Nicholas Serota, ACE chairman.

Among those whose funding has been cut to zero is the Donmar Warehouse Theater in central London. Sam Mendes, the theater’s founding artistic director, said it was a “short-sighted decision that will cause lasting damage to the entire industry.”

He added: “The Donmar has been at the heart of British theater for three decades and has a hard-fought legacy of punching well above its weight in both ambition and reach. It is a world famous and hugely influential theater and the UK cannot afford to jeopardize it.”

The Barbican Center also lost all of its ACE funding. A spokesman said they are “very grateful for the funding” and “fully appreciate the changing landscape” – but the City of London Corporation will continue to be the venue’s main financier.

In total, ACE has provided 990 arts organizations with £446m a year over the next three years, which according to Darren Henley, its chief executive, was the “most widespread investment of all time across the country”. The money comes from the government and the National Lottery.

Among the recipients were 276 organizations that had not previously received an Arts Council grant. ACE declined to say how many organizations had been removed from its “portfolio.”

New arrivals included the National Football Museum in Manchester, Tourettehero, which celebrates the “humor and creativity of Tourette Syndrome”, the Postal Museum in London and Blackpool Illuminations.

Ballet Black, which historically provides a platform for dancers of color, saw its grant almost doubled to £424,000 and Bamboozle, a Leicester-based touring theater company for children on the autistic spectrum or with learning disabilities, received a 50% increase in funding.

Henley said: “We wanted to make sure the portfolio reflected the way England looks and feels in the 21st century.”

More than £43m of the total has been spent on Leveling Up for Culture Places – cities and towns found to have historically been underserved by government spending on arts. These included Mansfield, Gloucester, Stoke and Slough.

London still saw the biggest investment, providing £152m a year, a third of the total. The South West received the least funding, with £37m going to 33 organisations.

Theaters were the largest recipients with total grants of £111m. Libraries received the smallest share of the money, at £4 million.

Some of the capital’s biggest names have seen their grants frozen or cut while facing exponentially rising costs and plummeting box offices.

The National Theater said cutting its funding by 5% to £16.1million a year would “pose a challenge” but was “grateful for the financial support… especially given the difficult times many people are facing”. The Royal Opera House grant has been cut by 9%. Funding for the Royal Shakespeare Company was not increased and the English National Ballet grant fell 5% from just over £6.3m to just over £6m.

Sadiq Khan, London Mayor, said “50m worth of cuts in London’s arts funding are impacting the cost of living crisis on audiences”.

Serota said ENO “has long wanted to do more outside of London. And the potential of them working from a base up north is pretty exciting.”

He acknowledged that cutting the opera house’s regular funding would pose a challenge, but “the scale of the funds we had to withdraw from London made it necessary to look at a number of larger organisations”.

ACE had been clear for several years that it “wanted to do more for communities outside of London that previously had no public funding for the arts”.

1,700 applications for funding were received this year, compared to 1,100 in the previous round five years ago. “It is right that we should respond to energy, imagination and opportunity across the country. I don’t think we shouldn’t apologize for that.”

Major tourist attractions like Tower Bridge could be disrupted as City of London Corporation workers prepare to strike against their “extremely wealthy” employer.

The City of London Corporation, the municipal authority for historic central London, employs 1000 GMB union members as guides, parking attendants, technicians and more.

But strike chaos beckons after 83 per cent of members voted to reject the corporation’s “non-negotiable” 3 per cent salary offer plus a £1,000 winter fuel payment. They are waiting for an inflation-compliant increase.

Interview with Yung Filly: Internet star talks football, growing up in south London and the secrets of his success

GMB London region organizer Anna Lee said: “The company continues to host lavish dinners and events while these low paid workers struggle to meet living expenses and bills.

“The company could choose to fund a real pay raise but they prefer to spend it on banquets for the bankers – this is unacceptable to our members so we will now move to a vote on industrial action.”

Though the company often acts like a local authority, responsible for garbage collection, childcare and other community obligations, it also operates many of the capital’s top tourist attractions.

Teenager stabbed to death in Peckham Rye Park

GMB Union has warned other tourist attractions such as the Barbican and Hampstead Heath are likely to be affected as well.

A GMB member employed by the corporation said: “City of London salaries are struggling to compete even with what the national local government is offering. It is a disgrace for such a respected and wealthy organization.”

GMB London has said if the company doesn’t return to the negotiating table it faces a strike.

The GMB union represents 500,000 members working in almost every industry sector including retail, security, schools, distribution, utilities, social care, local government and the NHS.

The ‘uncaring’ Surrey Quays couple who exploited a 13-year-old boy to sell drugs have been jailed

Sporadic lockdowns in China caused Volvo Cars to cut its delivery targets for the year, while rising costs and the need to buy semiconductors on the open market hurt third-quarter profits.

The Swedish carmaker, backed by China’s Geely, initially expected wholesale deliveries this year to be flat compared to 2021.

But on Thursday, the company said it now expects “slightly lower wholesale volumes than 2021, assuming there are no other major supply chain disruptions.”

Chinese closures are “by far the biggest problem” for the company, Chief Executive Jim Rowan said, with some suppliers shutting down for 70 days.

The “sporadic” nature of the closures that have hit Volvo’s suppliers and plants around the world makes it “so difficult for us to predict when it will end,” he said.

The company has sought to shift supplies to Europe and the US to reduce its reliance on Chinese parts. The group is building a factory in Slovakia to increase European production and taking important parts of the electric drive system in-house.

It also expects to announce deals to increase its supply of lithium and other battery materials in the coming months, Rowan added.

In the third quarter, car sales fell 8 per cent to 138,000 vehicles, but revenue rose by a third to SKr 79.3 billion (£6.3 billion) as the previously announced price increase was pushed through.

Net profit fell 70 percent to SKr700 million. Volvo’s profit margin fell from 7.1 percent to 4.4 percent, or from 5.5 percent to 2.6 percent after including its stake in loss-making Polestar.