Victory For Martha Grekos In The Mountbatten-Windsor Affair; Defeat For The Former Iceni & Edward Lord; Tim Hailes’ Clumsy PR

On 4/3/26 Ben Lynch published a good piece of investigative journalism in My London in which he disclosed that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor still held the Freedom of the City of London, an “honour” which he had acquired “by patrimony” from his father.* Lynch quoted a City Council spokesperson as saying that: We have carefully considered whether it is possible to remove a Freedom granted by patrimony and understand that we are not able to do so. Alder Martha Grekos first raised the matter within the City Council at a meeting of the alders on 17/3/26, in which she described the Council’s position as “untenable and self-harming” and pointed out that it didn’t conform with the pledge of the Lady Mayor, Sue Langley, to “unsquare the Square Mile”. You can read the unenthusiatic response of the City Remembrancer, Paul Wright, the City Solicitor, Michael Cogher, Alder William Russell and Langley herself here. It turned out that Wright and Cogher were responsible for the legal advice that…