Nina Hjerpset-Østlie Topphemmelige planer om å ha hæren på standby skal ha blitt lagt av britiske myndigheter for å kontre forventede opptøyer i fremtiden.
Kombinasjonen av den verste økonomiske krisen i levende minne og politiske ekstremister bestemt på utnytte den sosiale uroen skal ha ledet til det ekstraordinære tiltaket om å holde den britiske hæren på standby i tilfelle opptøyer i landets største byer:
MI5 and Special Branch are targeting activists they fear could inflame anger over job losses and payouts to failed bankers.
One of the most notorious anarchist websites, Class War, asks: «How to keep warm during the credit crunch? Burn a banker.»
Such remarks have rung alarm bells in Scotland Yard and the Ministry of Defence.
Intelligence sources said the police, backed by MI5, are determined to stay on top of a situation that could spiral out of control as the recession bites deep.
The chilling prospect of soldiers being drafted on to the streets has not been discounted, although it is regarded as a last resort.
Det skal være landets middelklasse som hovedsakelig bekymrer britiske myndigheter. En middelklasse som strever med å takle arbeidsledighet og tap av eiendom kan tenkes å ta til gatene sammen med mer eller mindre «frakoblede» samfunnsgrupper.
Scotland Yard hevder imidlertid å være i stand til å hamle opp med enhver trussel, mens andre senior politioffiserer frykter at styrkene ikke vil være i stand til å beholde kontrollen:
A source said: «We do have a policing plan in place and we have riot police officers trained for such measures.»
But other senior police leaders fear the force will be unable to cope.
Were that to be the case, the Government has a contingency plan to deploy troops on the streets of Britain’s major cities.
A senior source said: «This is a very real, and very serious, problem.
«I can tell you there have been crisis talks in Whitehall about this.
«Half the senior officers in Britain have been warning the Home Secretary about the dangerous effects that reducing police manpower may have this summer, especially in the industrial heartlands.
«We are not just talking about the problems of immigration and British jobs for British worker. We are also talking about mass unemployment.
– I mange av våre industri-byer vil ikke antallet bli målt i hundrevis, men i tusener. Med arbeidsledighet kommer risikoen for økning i kriminalitet. Noen politistyrker, som Sør-Wales, har offentlig gitt uttrykk for at de kommer til å bli overmannet. Andre tier stille, men dere kan være sikre på at de forsøker å få innenriksdepartementet til å lytte før det er for sent», sier den samme kilden til Daily Express.
«Protest-sesongen» antas å bli innledet 1. april, med G20-samlingen i London måneden etter, fulgt av 60-årsdagen for Nato i Strasbourg noen dager senere som høydepunkter.
Den britiske regjeringens ministre har ikke råd til å la et latent, offentlig raseri over regjeringens politikk å ta overhånd hvis de skal opprettholde troverdigheten gjennom det som later til å bli Gordon Browns vanskeligste periode som statsminister.
The Stop the War coalition, orchestrating the G20 protest, said: «The first week of April could be a week of world leaders will never forget.»
The British authorities want to avoid a repeat of the rioting that scarred British cities in the 1980s Then, as now, the country was in recession with rising unemployment and deep public hostility to perceived social divisions.
Today that anger is focused on the banks, with their bonus culture surviving despite billions being paid in taxpayer bail-outs.
This has fomented in the outrage over news that senior executives will be rewarded for their failure.
Sir Fred Goodwin, former boss of RBS, has refused to hand back his £693,000-a-year-pension even as the ailing bank announced a £24billion loss last year, the single largest loss in British corporate history.
Early warnings of trouble ahead came from the furore over last months «British jobs for British workers» protest and wildcat strikes across the country.
This week Britain’s most senior police officer warned that the summer could bring a wave of protests orchestrated by extremists in which ordinary people, fired by their own anger and fear at the economic downturn – became «foot soldiers».
Superintendent David Hartshorn, who heads the Met’s public order branch, identified the G20 as the possible start of a «summer of rage».
Murray Benham, head of campaigns at the UK-based World Development Movement, accused Supt Hartshorn of «scaremongering».
«Scaremongering from the police will not stop us because the price for failing is too high.
«People are understandably angry about the impact of the economic crisis on their jobs, savings and plans for the future.»
