The City of London and London are not the same thing. Essentially, there are two Londons: Greater London and the City of London, otherwise known as “the City” or the Square Mile. Technically the Queen has to apply for permission to enter “the City.” 

As the British Empire declined, the city of London, once the Empire’s beating heart, secretly and covertly reinvented itself.  From once being the hub from which the machinery of Empire operated, “The City” has, in recent years, transformed its finance and banking services, to now make Britain and its dependencies into the world’s largest tax haven.

Established in remote and formerly insignificant outposts of empire, “the City” operates a spider’s web of offshore secrecy jurisdictions set up to capture secret and stolen wealth from across the globe and funnel it back to “the City.” 

Serving above all the interests of “the one percent” and with callous disregard for the harm done to the people and countries dispossessed, it is now estimated that up to half of all illicit “offshore” wealth may be held in British tax havens 

Financial services is how Britain’s elite generate their wealth and it is also where former British government ministers, senior civil servants and retired spooks from MI5 and Mi6 receive lucrative consulting positions when they hang up their umbrellas.

And, as exposed in this YouTube documentary, “The Spider’s Web – Britain’s Second Empire,” it’s amazing to see the lengths “the City” is prepared to go to to disguise its activities.