When is the City not the City?

Picture this. A focus group is sat around a table wearing suits and earnest faces and the Head of Marketing begins to speak:
“We need to come up with an idea that’s really going to engage with the City and stage an event that’s going to knock their socks off and get them on board with what we’re trying to do”

“How about something in the heart of the City like we did last time?” pipes up one smartly-clad participant

“Too old. Been there, done that“ chimes in another.

“Tell you what“. Heads turn to view the new speaker. “Why don’t we get our message across to the City by not doing it in the City. Let’s pick somewhere they might not even be able to point out on a map“.

Am I the only one feeling a massive sense of anti-climax about the Climate Camp and it’s decision to set up next to a funfair on Blackheath? I may be missing some ingenious twist to this cunning plan but it almost seems like the decision-making as to where to set up camp has been led by Blackadder’s sidekick Baldrick.

To recap the events so far after playing games with the police on Wednesday by trying to lead them in a guessing game of where the camp was going to be set up they picked the well-known City hotspot of Blackheath to set up camp on the grounds that some protestors did it a few hundred years ago and it’s got a nice view of the City. This was billed as:
The Climate Camp are on the case, join them when they takeover the city of London, the financial heart of global capitalism next week…
Hmmm… If these people were ever to have annual appraisals I’d suggest they’re not making their quotas as from what I can tell most of the 22 identified targets are currently unvisited.

Yesterday morning the BBC reports that around 20 protestors staged a demo on Bishopsgate outside the Carbon Exchange on Bishopsgate and then, according to other reports, went off for lunch and didn’t come back. Sounds like they’ve begun to integrate into City life then!

By contrast Help for Heroes had a collection march of around 100 people which headed through the City on their way to Trafalgar Square. Did the press report that?

While taking pictures outside the Royal Exchange on Wednesday I chatted with Police and journalists and we came up with a list of at least five locations in Central London that would have had:
a) Immediate relevance to one of their targets,
b) Been very photogenic for the benefit of the press,
c) Had a very high footfall so they could get their message across to lots of people,
d) Wouldn’t be a huge disruption so they’d be unlikely to be moved on.

The didn’t choose any of those. Let’s see what today brings.

Climate Camp – lunchtime update

The Climate Camp is under way with protestors gathering, press reporting and Police observing. I visited the BankSwoop and RioTintoSwoop and there were about equal numbers of press and protestors at both with the mood being good on all sides.

The Rio Tinto Swoop were being entertained by a guitarist, possibly to draw attention away from the fact that Rio Tinto moved out six months ago, but even the Police I spoke to agreed with their cause and are hoping that they’re able to get their message across in a peaceful and productive way.

I’ve heard a few sirens on and off over the last hour but there’s no indication so farthat they’re related to the Climate Camp and aren’t unusual for a normal City day.

If you’ve seen the protestors, or if you are a protestor, then let me know how you think it’s going by leaving a comment on here or on Twitter to @thecityblog.

Climate Camp returns today

Today sees the return of the Climate Camp to London and this time there won’t be an announcement of their intended destination until noon. They have, however, publicised the starting points for their demonstrations and the ones in the City are:
Bank of England, Threadneedle Street, London EC2R 8AH
Rio Tinto, Aldermanbury Square, EC2V 7HR
though the full list can be found here:
http://climatecamp.org.uk/actions/london-2009/swoop

Other targets for demonstrations in and around the Square Mile include:
London Stock Exchange – Paternoster Square,
J.P. Morgan Climate Care – 125 London Wall,
European Climate Exchange – 62 Bishopsgate,
Evolution Markets – 36-38 Leadenhall Street,
RBS – 250 Bishopsgate,
Multilateral Carbon Credit Fund – 1 Exchange Square,
Point Carbon – 102-108 Clerkenwell Road,
D1 Oils Plc – 33-37 Charterhouse Square.

Again, more info can be found here:
https://london.indymedia.org/articles/1920Climate
and here:
http://climatecamp.org.uk
and you can follow them on Twitter at @climatecamp and #swoop.

They haven’t got the kind of nice weather that they had last time but I’m sure they’ll make a go of it and I will let you know when I hear any more.