Like the Mayor, the Guild is keen to see London’s small businesses thrive and buck the economic uncertainty of Brexit. So rather than feeling gloomy we’re rolling up our sleeves by taking collective action and putting on a wide variety of events from jellied eel tasting at F.Cooke to ukulele workshops from the Duke of Uke, just in time to catch the seasonal trade on East End Independents’ Day, 3rd December.
Until last Thursday 3rd November, we had not had a response from the Sadiq Khan to our digital invitation starring Nevio and Anna Pellicci. So a delegation of our members, and Director Krissie Nicolson went to meet him in person at the People’s Question Time in Brent. They took with them a printed invitation made by Baddeley Brothers, one of their new maps designed by James Brown and a Tatty Devine EETG brooch inside a Gardners’ Bags tote to present to the Mayor.
In the nick of time, only just managing to get their question in before the event closed, Robert Gardner – Gardners’ Bags, Kollier Din Bangura – %, Luke Coster – Luke Jacob and Hash Hirji from Urban Species arose to their feet with Krissie Nicolson who praised the Mayor saying;
“we’re pleased to hear that your priorities are arts, culture and social integration because all three are what our members do on a day to day basis. You may have seen our wonderful digital invitation starring Anna and Nevio Pellicci that we sent to you via Twitter. It’s not always understood, the social and cultural as well as the economic contribution that small businesses bring to London. Our members have helped to make the East End the diverse cultural and creative hub of our City. So our question Mayor Khan, is – will you celebrate this with us and accept our invitation to take breakfast at E. Pellicci on Small Business Saturday?’.
After a round of applause the Mayor responded; “This is a lesson to you all, make a brilliant short speech first, have three handsome men standing next to you, have a prop and the answer is yes!” After more than a year of planning, organising, building relationships and being politely persistent, finally our collective and strategic action won the result we worked so hard for. The delegation was delighted. Although, all four of the members were left wondering which of them was not handsome!
The EETG hopes that breakfast with the Mayor will create a constructive and lasting working relationship with Sadiq Khan and the Greater London Authority for effective action on the critical issues that matter to our members.
The full listings, including markets and Christmas fairs can be found here and on our facebook page. Tour bookings can be made directly from Alternative London and Hackney Tours.