If you thought your financial services counterparts across the pond were a bunch of pussies who couldn’t hold their own in fight, you thought wrong. Although JPMorgan London et al have sent out memos telling employees to dress down, lest their unofficial uniforms give them away, and to essentially hide under the covers and not come out til the G20 is over (and what is expected to be angry mobs of demonstrators looking for banker blood subside), not everyone is quaking in their boots.
In fact, some, like Graham Williams, sound like they’re looking for a fight and you know what? We dig it. The 66 year old insurance company director told Bloomberg that, contrary to popular belief, “We’re not all pansies.” Think he’s bluffing? Think again! “Most us have played rugby or boxed,” said Williams. “If any of those guys do get violent against us individually because we’re wearing a suit, we will take action.” Also, lay your fears to rest that W won’t have an octogenarian brother, equally attached to his dress pants, watching his back.
Alan Cornelius, 81, who was wearing a red tie and blue- striped shirt, vowed campaigners wouldn’t make him change the sartorial habit of a lifetime in a city where Savile Row tailors hand stitch bespoke suits for princes and financial royalty.
way to go pops. you may have played rugby, or boxed, in the 50′s, that really doesn’t mean shit to a mother fucker who would probably rather be in jail (3 hots and a cot), than out on in this job market. dude’s gonna get his ass beat.
Talk about tempting fate…
we regularly give them a kicking, i dont see that changing any time soon, bring on the pikey scum
Now if this were being held in New York, and Merrill Lynch’s 5,000 guidos were still on hand, instead of having been laid off by Ken Lewis, the bankers might have had a fair chance in open combat.
How tough could a guy named after a cracker be?
“Non-pansy” nad “British” = oxymoron
Oh yeah, those “demonstrators” are typically a tough bunch. The pink ladies from the AIG hearings scared the hell out of me. Whenever I see a bunch of sign toting protesters I usually run the other way to avoid those bad asses.
I guess nobody here has ever seen Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Trust me, the East End spivs that work trading floors in London are just Brooklyn guidos with Cockney accents. But they drink a few pints at lunch. I wouldn’t take the hippies in this fight.
Look, old boy, our friends (of a certain age) across the pond simply ask themselves: What would John Steed do?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Avengers_(TV_series)
Expect a run on Swaine Adeney Brigg umbrellas with concealed sword blades
http://www.swaineadeney.co.uk/about/the_brigg_umbrella/
and steek-lined Coke hats lined made by Lock & Co.:
http://www.lockhatters.co.uk/Top_Hats___Coke__Bowler_-Town_Coke-P98.aspx:
Yobs beware!
@7
them rude boys don’t play.
@1 & Bess he may be 66, but my money would be on him over some vegan anarchist anyday.
natural selection at its best…there will either be more trading jobs about to open, or fewer protesters…win win in my book
I’d go as Rasta Jon just to be safe.
Boffo tag line
@12 well said!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article515384.ece
“sod off swampy”, nice battle cry for Wednesday
@12 FTW!
@8&11,
Agreed. And in addition to their rage, these guys view this as a nostalgic re-enactment of beating on a much tougher breed during the Thatcher years.
The masses will be running up on Wall Street on at the end of the week. Everyone be sure to waive to the angry folks!
@8 – these protestors aren’t just “hippies” and “code pink ladies”. There are some serious, hardcore anarchists in the mix. Trust me, as someone who was in Seattle back during the WTO riots, you do not want to mix it up with them.
You’ve got your Churchill British, and then you’ve got your Chamberlain British.
Guess which type goes to protests demanding the government increase the size of the hand outs.
As a recently canned/freed Citi employee I will definitely be attending in a comedy capacity. Watch out for a PANDIT IS A BANDIT sign…
That’s the old spirit. I love the image of the two old guys fighting side by side. just like Gold and Sword Beach in 44!
@20 – so how many people from the WTO got pounded by those tough guys protesting in Seattle?
All I know is that my “banker” aquaintences include about a dozen former NFL players, probably 50+ collegiate football players, a few golden gloves champs, etc.
I’ll take the bankers over the “hardcore anarchists” who seem more obsessed with taunting cops than actually throwing or taking a punch…
Bottom line is that 99% of the “demonstrators” are incredible pansies and 98% of the bankers are just plain pansies (with over 50% of that group being incredible pansies). Against just about another other group I’d pick the bankers to get crushed except for the “demonstrator” demographic.
@16 great find, great friggin find…..
@24 – fair enough, as long as we agree that the 50% of bankers who are “incredible pansies” all work at Goldman Sachs..
@24 “All I know is that my “banker” aquaintences include about a dozen former NFL players, probably 50+ collegiate football players, a few golden gloves champs, etc.”
I think you have touch on something that the mainstream press has missed Wall Street is filled with punch drunk, brain dead, drooling idiots it’s no wonder that they got rolled trying pick up nickles in front of that steamroller…
@26 – agreed
@27 – nah, the biggest dopes were the pansy bankers because they actually thought they were smart and that their financial engineering would work…. The jocks and goons just sold the products that the pansies designed.
@ 24-28
Ok, we’ve gotta clarify the use of the term “Bankers” here. Quants typically don’t fall under the “banker” umbrella, nor do “insurance company brokers,” “traders,” “financial advisors,” etc.
If you split the industry into sub-professions, I think you’d see a different “pansie” distribution than the simple black/white arguments made above.
@ 16 – you win. I’ve dealt w/them before, and I totally want them on MY side!
@4:
I think you are talking about ex-Bear bankers…
@16 – the best thing about this episode was the way in which the unwashed lefties tried to spin it as a success:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0217-05.htm
have a read.