Keen observers of global politics will have noticed that Independence Day for the USA arrived on 4 July this year as the Yanks bound Michael Mainelli over for six years as Alderman of Broad Street Ward. Moreover, Michael is now going to have to wear those dreaded cravates (his most polite term) at various official functions. For those who wish to know more about the City of London Corporation and the role of an Alderman or Broad Street Ward, there is plenty of surfing to do.

What Now & Z/Yen has noticed is Michael's retrograde approach to Community Service. First, after spells helping some modern charities, he takes on Gresham College (1597) as Professor, then Trustee, then Fellow. Second, he takes on being an Almoner at Christ's Hospital (1546), the charitable boarding school. However, the City of London Corporation predates all these by centuries.

The City of London Corporation is the world's oldest continuously elected local government. The City is regarded as 'incorporated by prescription', meaning that the law presumes it to have been incorporated because it has for so long been regarded as such even in the absence of written documentation. The Corporation began in Anglo-Saxon times. The first record of a royal charter is 1067, when William the Conqueror confirmed the rights and privileges that the Citizens of London had enjoyed since the time of Edward the Confessor. Together, Common Council and the Court of Aldermen are considered to form the 'grandmother of parliaments'. The governing legislation is the Magna Carta (1215), "THE City of London shall have all the old Liberties and Customs [which it hath been used to have]. Moreover We will and grant, that all other Cities, Boroughs, Towns, and the Barons of the Five Ports, and all other Ports, shall have all their Liberties and free Customs." [the other two outstanding 'effects' of the Magna Carta are personal liberties and no false imprisonment].

Michael was sworn into the Court on 9 July where he had to make a short speech. He was welcomed by Common Council for his first Court on 18 July. Meanwhile, time at the office has been consumed in the precedence of titles (Alderman Professor Don Michael Mainelli - at least when on City business), inscription for the goblet used at ceremonial banquets, learning what it means to be 'Boots' (most junior Alderman), and seventeenth century dress sense. Whatever next? Perhaps readers can suggest Michael's next posting? The Vatican? Keeper of the Keys of the Pyramids? Grand Factotum of the Venerable Order of Sumerian Tax Collectors?