I went for a lunchtime walk today in the City of London; and I went to see the early stage of the G20 demonstration, disguised in my chalkstripe suit.
It is a warm sunny day. Every open office block has at least one security guard, often in yellow Hi-Vis tops. Most looked bored, but a couple had a clear "bring it on" manner. One short-ish guard in leather gloves was clearly up for it.
Outside Liverpool Street station, the crusty protesters were emerging, sometimes gaping at all the tall buildings.
Most of the shops were still open, sometimes with an anxious manager or two at the front door. In one McDonalds the managers handed the serviettes and straws to people as they left, protecting from harm the dispenser behind them. Other shops were closed or even boarded up. One expensive clothes shop had removed all its window displays.
I walked around freely until I got to the Bank of England. There, the drums were beating and whistles were being blown, the fabrics were bright and the faces earnest: all the carnival cliches of an English demo.
However, already the police had formed a cordon and I heard a protest that those inside were "trapped".
On Threadneedle Street, I saw the row of British Transport Police (I wonder what their arrest powers are away from train stations?) blocking the entire road clenching each others' belts. There really was no reason for such an aggressive posture, and of course it was stressing both the police and the protesters caught behind them; as always with "public order" the police were making things worse.
And it was still before one o'clock on this warm sunny day: one can see how good tempers may not survive much longer, let alone into the evening.
This is not the first anti-capitalist demonstration I have seen in the City. But it is of course the first one where it is clear that capitalism is already undermined by all the wallies and nasties at desks and in meeting rooms just yards away from the waving placards.
I wonder if any protester gave this commercial lawyer in a rumpled suit a second glance? In any case, my silent sympathy was with them.
And, before I got caught up in any cordon and forced to be civilised to some dim-witted police officer, I escaped back to my desk to listen to the sirens and helicoptors.
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
Comment
My sympathy is also with the protesters, though I am against violence, from either side. I do wonder who the police believe they are supposed to answer to, at times, what principles they are supposed to uphold. They seem more and more in thrall to the politicians as the decades go by.
Actually, it is not just politicians to whom the police seem to kowtow. In our part of the country “travelers” seem to be inviolate as well. If they take over a field, the police do nothing, unless someone tries to move the travelers on, then tey are in trouble with the police. Similarly, anyone impeding travelers is deemed to be committing a public order offence, while the travelers are not deemed to be committing any offence.
Years ago I was “ripped off” by a local authority who were engaged in fraud connected with a project they took off me, though the fraud went beyond that one. To avoid prosecution they paid back the Government Department concerned but defrauded the local taxpayers to do so. I wrote to the Chief Constable about ti. A local Officer said that ti was so serious it would either go direct to the Home Office, or be swept under the carpet. It did not go to the Home Office. More recently an officer who came to the door in connection with investigations into a local burglary, said the Chief Constable had given instructions not to pursue fraud investigations and, by their nature, public sector fraud inquiries present particular difficulties.
That particularly blog entry of yours was even more level headed than usual. If only there were more like you when it comes to my non-engineering interests and involvements, the legal business aside.
Many conservative and libertarian Americans agree with the G20 protests.
While most of the London and European protesters are from the far left, many working Americans feel the same about Washington’s excessive bailouts for Wall Street and the banking establishment. Washington has bailed out the banks, Wall Street & their Washington special interests and much of the cost is added to the national debt to by paid by this and future generations while real estate and investments continue to fall.
Find out how a growing repudiate the debt movement could stop Washington’s deficits, the exploding national debt and end the bailouts.
The Campaign to Cancel the Washington National Debt By 12/21/2012 Constitutional Amendment is starting now in the U.S.
See: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=67594690498&ref=ts
Ron
Post a Comment