Commercial risk, political violence and policing the City of London

Commercial risks, insecurities and crimes come in all shapes and sizes. However, the types addressed in this chapter – namely, terrorism and political violence – should be viewed as at the pinnacle of such risks and insecurities, for this chapter considers crime – or even high treason – against the political economy. In precise terms, it is intended to study the IRA’s bombs in the City of London in 1992 and 1993 (plus the London Docklands and Manchester bombings in 1996) mainly in terms of the legislative attempts to shore up confidence of the City of London reinsurance market. ¹ Alongside those responses are policing reactions – both public and private. By adopting this focus, it is intended to elucidate several themes of this book. These include aspects of risk that have become novel or heightened in late modern society, as well as the manner in which a blur of public and private actors responds to these heightened insecurities. The nature of the risk and response also connects with the themes of the interplay of transnational and local – how the nature of financial markets produces global opportunity and risk but how these can become concentrated within a very small locality, such as the ‘Square Mile’ of London. Unlike some of the other chapters in this volume, it also documents a very palpable risk and an equally tangible set of reactions.