[graemep]

> companies get the vote based on number of employees

That is the result of recent legislation. Until about 20 years ago companies did not get votes. Individuals got votes by being freemen of the city, usually by being members of a livery company, the descendants of medieval guilds.

> Can’t easily be changed because some of the “rights and liberties” predates written common law and are “senior”.

It can be changed by passing legislation.

I lived in the city (in the Barbican) in the early 2000s and loved it.

[tomatocracy]

All businesses used to get votes in local elections in England and Wales (by virtue of being ratepayers) and boroughs/cities had separate Aldermen and (Common) Councilmen. The City of London (ie the square mile, not the metropolis) retained the old system when it was abolished elsewhere (in favour of only residents voting and a single type of councillor) because the number of residents in the City then was absolutely tiny by comparison to the number of people who use the City daily (after much of the residential population left, partly due to war damage during WW2).

What changed more recently was the allocation of which individual people get to exercise those votes - "business votes" became "workers votes".

The election of the Lord Mayor and the Sheriffs is separate though. This is still done at Common Hall (and the franchise is still Liverymen), but that election is very very rarely contested.