2009-03-27
By Daily Mail Reporter
City workers are being urged to stay at home or to dress down during next week's G20 summit to avoid being targeted by anti-capitalist protesters.
Unprecedented measures are being put in place to prepare for thousands of demonstrators targeting the City and Canary Wharf.
About 3,000 anti-capitalist protesters are expected, with groups next Wednesday marching to the Bank of England, holding 'flashcamps' outside the European Climate Exchange in Bishopsgate, and marching on the US Embassy.
Demonstrators have vowed to hang effigies of bankers from lampposts along the protest route.
City of London
City workers have been warned not to wear suits, but to 'dress down' in chinos and loafers because they would be obvious targets.
Banks have been warned to take extra security precautions to protect their staff after vandals attacked former RBS chief Sir Fred Goodwin's Edinburgh home.
Security specialists at Kroll, the risk consultancy, said high profile bankers were 'easy targets'. Companies linked to the financial crisis are taking extra security measures for prominent staff.
An extra 2,500 police, including riot units and intelligence officers, are being deployed at a cost of £10million to tackle any violence, while security consultants are giving firms constant updates on threat levels.
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.
Smashed: A window of the house was broken in the attack
Demonstrators will target the ExCeL centre the next day. Banks, insurers, accountancy firms and brokerages have all circulated emails to staff with security instructions.
One warns: 'The front door is to be permanently locked during these two days.'
The London Chamber of Commerce have warned businesses to take security precautions, including making sure staff carry ID, keep movement in and out of the offices to a minimum and cancelling all but essential meetings.
Colin Stanbridge, chief executive of the LCCI, said: 'There will be concern among businesses at the protests but the vast majority of firms will have robust security arrangements in place.'
The financial advisory group Bluefin, which employs 500 staff in London-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, is organising protests under the banner G20 Meltdown.
He said: 'We are going to be hanging a lot of people like Fred the Shred from lampposts and I can only say let's hope they are just effigies. If he winds us up any more I'm afraid there will be real bankers hanging from lampposts.'
Meanwhile, the group claiming responsibility for vandalising the former Royal Bank of Scotland chairman's home has threatened further action against 'criminal' bank bosses.
A statement claiming to be from the group responsible for damage at his £3million mansion warned of further attacks, saying: 'This is just the beginning.'
The threat sparked fears of a terror campaign against those blamed for the collapse in the financial system.
Security adviser Dai Davies, a former head of Scotland Yard's Royalty Protection squad, said: 'Risk assessments will have to be carried out by the police on individuals who are concerned about their safety. If there is cause for concern then appropriate advice will be given and pre put in place.
'The developments at Sir Fred Goodwin's home will almost certainly make some other high-profile bankers want to review their own private security arrangements.'