Following the collapse of bankers’ charity ARK’s plans to sponsor a 3-19 city academy on the sites of Islington Green and Moreland schools, Islington Green School governors gave the Headteacher and Chair of Governors "delegated authority" to draw up and submit a revised expression of interest in an alternative proposal for a 5-19 academy on the IGS site, this time to be sponsored by the City of London Corporation and specialising in Business and Enterprise (financial services).

We believe this delegation was in reality an abdication of responsibility to consider carefully what everyone knows is a very controversial issue, especially since the new proposal is in most respects different from the old one.

Despite the fact this expression of interest had not been agreed by the Islington Governors and although the proposal, if implemented, would lead to their being three schools in Islington specialising in Business and Enterprise (so much for a "broad and balanced curriculum"!) Islington Council Executive voted to endorse it earlier this month.

On 12 July this year the Corporation issued a press release confirming that it was in discussions with CEA and the DfES "over the possible sponsorship of an academy to replace Islington Green School". Michael Snyder, chairman of the Corporation’s Policy and Resources Committee is quoted in the release as stating that the discussions are still at a "preliminary stage".

Snyder, as well as well as being a senior partner in a firm of City accountants which advises on "international tax planning" (avoidance) and "offshore structures" (tax havens), is also a freemason – along with a third of the other members of the Corporation’s Court of Common Council. (John McDonnell MP spoke in the House of Commons on 28 April 2002 about the problems of constraining the "freemason backwoodsmen who currently populate most of the City of London Corporation").

Another freemason is William Fraser, the Chair of Governors of the City of London Academy in Southwark, also sponsored by the Corporation. Oh what a tangled web we weave!

One author claims that "Freemasonry today is a wholly reactionary gathering of corrupt policemen, businessmen and politicians greasing each others palms behind a veil of secrecy".