Protestors hang banking effigy at 'family event'

This is getting serious. Following on from the politically-sanctioned banking witch trials in Parliament, demonstrators have hanged an effigy of a banker from Marble Arch in protest at the growing financial crisis.

The Evening Standard reports that a group called the Government of the Dead dressed up as zombies for the demonstration. Scores of revellers and musicians marched along Oxford Street chanting slogans and waving placards such as "eat the bankers", and "march of the corporate undead".

The most disturbing bit? Organisers described the Mardi Gras-style carnival as a 'family event'.

As a postscript, Marble Arch was formerly known as Tyburn, where public executions of criminals were held.

More gallows humour from the financial front-line comes the Wall Street Journal, which reports that former federal officials have dubbed Citigroup the 'Death Star' comparing the bank’s threat to the financial system with the planet-destroying super weapon in the Star Wars movies.

Presumably that puts Vikram Pandit in the role of Darth Vader.