Friday, June 3, 2011

Farewell to the legendary fish traps

The Corporation of the City of London revoke licenses for the discharge of old Billingsgate fish market after 135 years. The Labour Party is split, between the reformists and those who uphold the tradition of "working class" in Britain. Constantinos Camilleri works at the fish market of Billingsgate, London, for 52 years.

Half Italian and half greek, proudly displays a medal on his battered white uniform. Plays its historical profession - trap - and his license number. Like the other traps on the market, about 100, Constantinos is at loggerheads with the Corporation of the City of London has decided to revoke their business licenses.

"They're greedy bastards," he says, pointing with a sweeping motion of the arms of HSBC skyscraper looming on the market. "Look, banks everywhere. Here's what it is. "The Guild is the oldest municipal body that manages the City of London or" Square Mile "as it is called the world's most famous financial district.

Anachronistic legacy of the medieval communes for some jewelry for other government, the Corporation still maintains an administrative model differs from that of other municipal entities in Britain. It has a mayor himself - the Lord Mayor, not to be confused with the Mayor of London itself - two sheriffs and local laws that date from 800.

In April, the Corporation has decided to cancel a law from 1876 that allowed the Superintendent to grant a license to trap anyone who "has good character and good athleticism." The justification? A law redundant, dated and irrelevant to modern times. "The merchants, who are those who work to storm water, have the right to hire old people want without unnecessary constraints or pathetic," said Malcolm Macleod, superintendent for the Corporation's Billingsgate Market.

"There are 500 people employed at the market and only the traps they are licensed. Why should they be given special treatment? "But not everyone thinks so. The same Labour Party was split between reformers and so-called Blue Labour, who support the cause of the traditional "working class" in Britain.

Among the leading politicians of Blue Labour, former mayor of London Ken Livingstone and the City of London Assembly member John Biggs. "The equipment will become casual workers and underpaid," says Biggs. "It seems that the Corporation is happy to keep some traditions and dismiss the others, and the difference is usually about who is in power." The charge given to the Corporation, in short, is to want to leave the license in order to leave a free hand to merchants to take the workforce at little cost.

Trumpeting reformist principles, while bankers and entrepreneurs retain their age-old privileges in the City. Macleod rejected the accusations saying that the license-free market will take more people. "We respect the past but we can not live on it," he says. "We are a business and must compete to survive." The same traps are aware that soon will be replaced with cheap labor.

"It's disgusting, they want to wipe us out and replace them with Eastern European immigrants who will do our job," says Tom Rissix, downloaded from a life Billinsgate. Others evoke the specter of a conspiracy of the Corporation to extend its influence on Canary Wharf, the new financial district of London.

Dumpers, and the market itself, are therefore an obstacle to the building plans of the Corporation. Talking to download and how to make a trip back in time, between masters and slaves, a land to conquer and defend land, privilege and class struggle. "This land is at a too critical because the market will remain here," says Bobby.

"This is just the first step to move the market away." Billingsgate is in the Docklands for 35 years, since being transferred from its historic site next to the Tower of London. The expiration of the lease property is scheduled for 2013. Chris, who has worked for 42 years to Billinsgate has a veil of sadness over his eyes.

"I think the corporation wants the land for himself and getting rid of licenses, you can do whatever he wants," he says. "The market will be transferred. It is a legend that goes away. "Gianluca Mezzofiore, a freelance journalist from London, he collaborates with the International Press Institute, Frontline Club Italian agency RedattoreSociale

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