UK Uncut force closure of Barclays Bank in Piccadilly Circus

UK Uncut forced the closure of Barclays Bank in Piccadilly Circus just after 11am. Yesterday it was revealed that the bank paid just 1% corporation tax in 2009 – £113m after record profits of £11.6bn. London, UK, 19/02/2011.

Handing out flyers titled ‘Big Society Bail-In’ the group sat outside the bank turning it into a library. They reveal that this week, the Chief Executive of the bank, Bob Diamond, received a bonus of around £9m.

The group are outraged over this bonus and state that this is, “the head of one of the UK’s four major banks. The ones that caused the financial crisis and had to be bailed out by over £1 trillion, that ruined our economy and have led our government to choose to make devastating cuts to foot the bill. His one off payment is more than 400 nurses earn in a year.”

The group see this as the ‘biggest bank heist in history’ with which the government has turned a blind eye, choosing to let everyone else pay the price.

“They [the government] are making a political choice to sacrifice essential services rather than stop tax avoidance, control the banks or tax bankers bonuses.”

On the revers of the flyer was a sticker further notifying people that the bank is the world’s largest investor in the arms trade with £7.3bn in shares invested in arms manufacturers.