Stock exchange denouncers told to move away from landmark cathedral; blame banker patrons, stay put.
The ‘Occupy London Stock Exchange’ protest that started two weeks earlier outside St Paul's Cathedral in Central London is faced with an eviction notice, from the cathedral administrators. The protesters, however, are saying they’ll continue to hang around as long as it takes. The number of makeshift tents put up by them have grown in number to around 150.
When the protest started mid-October, the ‘occupiers’ had full support of the cathedral authorities. However, citing health and safety reasons, and also loss of visitors, the latter are now telling the protestors to move from the the main entrance, adjacent to the LSE. The protesters are saying the real reason is pressure from major commercial and investment banks that are patrons of the cathedral.
Anonymous UK, a group that has been a strong supporter of WikiLeaks, the whistle-blowing website, and that had waged a cyber war against MasterCard and Visa for blocking donations to Wikileaks, issued a statement on Friday naming a list of big banks behind the eviction notice. The names include Lloyds TSB, Goldman Sachs, UBS Investment Bank, N M Rothschild & Sons, Prudential Plc, Standard Chartered Plc, JP Morgan and the LSE, too.
"After reading the list, it begs the question, why did St Paul's Cathedral feel 'forced' to close. Could it be, we wonder, that the occupiers are having their desired effect on the London Stock Exchange?" asked Anonymous UK.
St Paul's had to be shut for a week, denying public access to one of the most famous tourists attractions in London. The shutdown is reported to have caused a loss of several thousand pounds to the cathedral. This was the first shutdown since World War II, when it had to be closed during the Blitz, when German fighter aircraft bombed London.
The protesters have refused to move and continue to occupy outside the main entrance, leaving a small patch for visitors to move about freely in and out of the cathedral. The protests continue without any untoward event so far. Police presence at the protest site has also been reduced considerably.
E V Emanon, a protester in his mid-20s, said there was no agenda for the protest. "It’s just a question of creating awareness among people."
The common theme of the protest is mostly about bankers' pay, the high level of unemployment in the UK among youth, rising inflation and the dwindling economic growth rate. According to an IDS report published on Friday, pay for directors of UK's top businesses rose 50 per cent in the past year. The average annual pay of FTSE 100 (the top 100 capitalised companies on the LSE) directors is around £2.7 million, rising by 43 per cent, according to IDS.
Prime Minister David Cameron, addressing the media during his visit to Australia, had expressed grave concern over this rise. Directors' bonus payments, on average, rose 23 per cent from £737,000 in 2010 to £906,000 this year. Ed Miliband, leader of the opposition Labour party, caled it the 'something for nothing' culture.
