Did You Know...

Reader J. is in London and wrote me this morning. She witnessed the “anti capitalist (seemingly anti just about everything) protest taking place in front of Bank of England/London Stock Exchange” and snapped some photos. This morning, folks were trying to conduct business as usual. J. writes, in fact, that there were “businesses on Fleet St that have signs in the window saying ‘Business as Usual.’” But as rioters have stepped up their activities, J. e-mailed further:

I am not a journalist – but I will try to say something balanced here – on one hand people in the city are going about their business as usual (it is a London thing!), on the other hand there is a very real fear that certain pockets of the city are going to descend into chaos. This fear has been compounded by the fact that according to reports, police did not have the manpower present to stop protestors from storming the RBS offices. I left the protests shortly after 1pm (only an hour after they started) and things were already getting bad. Alot of the protestors I saw were drinking….what could possibly go wrong?? Unforunately for the police it is a beautiful, bright sunny day here which means nobody has been discouraged by bad weather. Let me reiterate though there is no sense of ‘panic’ overall (yet)- I saw lots of bankers out in suits and going for jogs at lunch hour etc.

J.’s pictures from the eye of the G20 storm: