Its looks like High Noon for Blue Dawn, the Tory activists who want to take over the Corporation of London. Blue Dawn is the manifesto of a group of councillors, led by Michael Farrow, deputy secretary of the City of London branch, and David Thorp, who serve on the corporation but want to politicise it by putting up Conservative councillors to contest the March 15 elections.

But their plans to fight the ward elections have met with short-shrift from Mark Field, Tory MP for the City of London and Westminster. Field told Village that the City of London is like the monarchy; unique and beyond the interests of any one political party. "Part of what gives it its prestige as a financial centre is its political independence," he said, adding that the lack of political bias is one of the reasons they can sustain the business vote.