A small group of protesters, some dressed as burglers and others playing the fiddle (fiddlers), gathered outside the London Business School today, where Blackstone Group is one of the companies attending a two day symposium on private equity. The subject of the protest was Blackstone Group's treatment of UK care home operator Southern Cross, which was plunged the private equity industry back into the media spotlight for the first time in a while.

The protest, organised by trade union body GMB, argued that Blackstone had made a profit during its ownership of the business between 2004 and 2006 while the system it left in place meant the company was set up to struggle.