thefonz on 31/3/2009 at 21:56
London is preparing to go into lockdown next week amid fears of major disorder hitting the G20 summit.
Unprecedented measures are being put in place to prepare for thousands of protesters targeting the City and Canary Wharf in demonstrations starting on Saturday.
Among the extraordinary precautions being taken are:
● Thousands of staff are being told to stay at home and avoid the City altogether.
● Others have been warned not to wear suits and given guides to “dressing down”, with chinos and loafers banned because they would make the employees obvious targets.
● An additional 2,500 police including riot units and intelligence officers are being deployed at a cost of £10 million to tackle any violence.
● Security consultants are giving firms constant updates on threat levels.
Banks, insurers, accountancy firms and brokerages have all circulated emails to staff giving them instructions on security. Fears of violence are rising after organisers warned that effigies of bankers, including Sir Fred Goodwin, would be burned from lamp posts.
Meanwhile, the group claiming responsibility for vandalising the former Royal Bank of Scotland chairman's home has threatened further action against “criminal” bank bosses.
The demonstrations, as 20 world leaders meet at the ExCeL centre in Docklands to discuss how to end the world recession, are expected to be the biggest in London this decade.
About 3,000 protesters are expected, with groups on Wednesday 1 April parading to the Bank of England, holding “flashcamps” outside the European
Climate Exchange in Bishopsgate, and marching on the US embassy. The following day demonstrators will target the ExCeL centre itself.
Police chiefs have briefed City firms on how to improve security. Memos have been circulated telling staff to stay indoors as much as possible.
One email, seen by the Standard, warns: “The front door is to be permanently locked during these two days. Protesters will be targeting banks which we are close to. Therefore we should limit any unnecessary visits outside the office, even at lunchtime.”
The London Chamber of Commerce has told finance sector workers to “consider wearing more casual clothing”.
Financial advisory group Bluefin has told employees not to go to its office in Mark Lane in the City unless absolutely necessary. A spokesman for the bank UBS said: “We are telling people to be cautious. If you have client meetings do you need to have them here?”
Chris Knight, professor of anthropology at the University of East London who is organising protests under the banner G20 Meltdown, said: “We are going to be hanging a lot of people like Fred the Shred from lamp posts on April Fool's Day and I can only say let's hope they are just effigies.”
Well I work in Canary Wharf, I'm a banker...I'll be going to work tomorrow...still not decided whether to go full suited out as usual or if I should dress down as I'm proud of what I do for a living and the Recession most certainly is not my fault.
I worked hard to get to where I am and I'm not going to let a bunch of spongers ruin the start of a big month (end of the first quarter) for me...
jay pettitt on 31/3/2009 at 22:26
Well I'm a climate camper and it's all a load of hogwash. Pop down at lunch time for a cup of tea and a vegan cake. I know vegan cake sounds horrible but it is surprisingly yummy I promise. Better still come after work, there will be cake
and ceilidh.
Seriously, it's all huboo like (
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/dec/15/kingsnorth-climate-change-environment-police) the time when the police suffered 70 serious injuries at the hands of
viscous vicious climate campers and confiscated stashes of
kitchen knives and all the rest. It's spin, it's political, it's designed to marginalise and to dissuade people from taking part. At some point the Police will get a bit argy bargy and pushy for ten minutes, take a photo and Thursday's papers will be full of (
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/7540450.stm) clashes between police and 'protesters'. It's frustrating, but mostly harmless.
Also, contrary to news reports, we don't have a tank.
(ps. I have a job thanks, not as posh as yours granted, but a splendid job none the less. If the last camp was anything to go by g20 (
http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/g20) camp will be full of tradesmen and women, scientists, journalists, teachers, lawyers, ambulance drivers, students, civil servants, parents, grandparents, children and so on and so on. You're a little off the mark with your 'spongers' jibe - we just look scruffy when camping ;).)
Fingernail on 31/3/2009 at 22:58
hey, you work in the wharf, thefonz? Pick up a copy of "The Wharf", my brother is the news editor.
Nicker on 31/3/2009 at 23:07
Fonz! Beware of jay pettitt and his fellow viscous campers. They'll stick to your Seville Row suit and you'll never get them out, not even with a Socialst sponge.
jay pettitt on 31/3/2009 at 23:13
ooops.
demagogue on 31/3/2009 at 23:14
I went through it when it happened in Geneva.
The part I didn't like about it was here I was busting my ass working on some serious int'l issues at the time at the UN, which are very real and difficult problems, and these people were just clowning around (making it tough for me to get to doing their job for them, I felt), breaking windows, spouting absurd proposals, and generally showing profound neglect towards the very things they claimed to care about. If you really care about the world's poor or the environment, your eyes shouldn't glass over when somebody mentions agricultural subsidies or emission trading...
I decided it had absolutely nothing to do with actually addressing a single int'l problem. It was completely a cultural movement about how these young people involved feel watching the news ... which is fine for what it is, I think.
But if I was in a bad mood that day, I'd say: Just don't claim to care about the environment or the poor when you do it, or expect anyone to take your claim of "caring" seriously. If you care, you get involved in the real work of it.
If I'm in a more parsimonious mood, I might say: At least they get the illusion of "participating" in a process that's bigger than all of us, although they aren't. And I understand it's sort of an expression of pure frustration in that sense.
But it still grates on me that they seem to have so much energy for clowning around but suddenly seem to loose that energy when it comes to real problem-solving for real issues. It's not the kind of "care" that resonates with me personally.
SD on 31/3/2009 at 23:25
Quote Posted by Nicker
Fonz! Beware of jay pettitt and his fellow
viscous campers. They'll stick to your
Seville Row suit and you'll never get them out, not even with a Socialst sponge.
Don't you hate it when you're pointing out someone else's typo and you make one yourself? ;)
Back to the unwashed masses: I wonder if they'll smash up John Lewis [worker's co-operative department store chain] again this time, or will they go full-scale irony and firebomb charity shops?
Quote Posted by demagogue
The part I didn't like about it was here I was busting my ass working on some serious int'l issues at the time at the UN, which are very real and difficult problems, and these people were just clowning around (making it tough for me to get to doing their job for them, I felt), breaking windows, spouting absurd proposals, and generally showing profound neglect towards the very things they claimed to care about.
Well quite. I don't know how these people think mindless rampage through the city centre helps the world's least well-off, but I'm sure there's some perverse logic at work there.
Of course, the craziest thing is that these people are just playing at anarchy, because as Jay (surprisingly honestly) points out, they tend to be better off than the people they're targeting.
jay pettitt on 31/3/2009 at 23:33
Sorry, do I have a history of dishonesty? All going well, accepting that setting up an impromptu temporary tent village in one of the worlds major financial centres during a security crackdown is a little foolhardy, climate camp will be 'targeting' people both richer and poorer than ourselves with a series of free talks and workshops (I don't know who's doing them this year, but last time round there was the (
http://www.jaypettitt.co.uk/climate-camp-bootleg-1) PIRC, (
http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&q=prashant%20vaze&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=ws) Prashant Vaze, George Monbiot and plenty of others I didn't get to), a cinema, entertainments, refreshments and spectacle. As far as I know climate camp has never smashed up a John Lewis department store - or are you trying to tar people with a broad daub stick?
Maybe there will be some violent protest in London at some point during the week though I imagine the Police will be all over the first signs of trouble if not before, but to be honest if some people get angry and frustrated by what they see as institutionalised inequity and injustice then I'm feeling a bit more sympathetic toward them than I am your sneering, even if their unskilled methods of expressing their frustration aren't my cup of tea. Camp, who count numerous political persuasions amongst it's ranks (including some would-be anarchists) will be peaceful as it always is.
SD on 1/4/2009 at 10:12
Quote Posted by jay pettitt
Sorry, do I have a history of dishonesty?
Heavens no, it's just unusual to hear someone from the People & Planet tendency admit that they have about as much experience of living in poverty as the Queen does.
Quote Posted by jay pettitt
As far as I know climate camp has never smashed up a John Lewis department store - or are you trying to tar people with a broad daub stick?
I can't say if it was people from the climate camp, or just some attendant thugs. There doesn't appear to be much of an effort among organisers to stop that kind of thing though. There
will be trouble.
Quote Posted by jay pettitt
to be honest if some people get angry and frustrated by what they see as institutionalised inequity and injustice then I'm feeling a bit more sympathetic toward them than I am your sneering
I get angry and frustrated by those things too - I just don't go out of my way to hinder those people actually doing something about those problems.
