Yesterday proved to be an eventful day in Edinburgh. I work right by the Meadows where the big march started on Saturday. I came into work as usual and all that was different was a very large amount of fresh graffiti on the walls of the buildings around George Square.
All seemed normal until lunchtime when we were advised that access in and out of the library was being controlled under police advice. Apparently the police had contained a number of the clown army in crichton street car park and searched the people and their vehicles for weapons, etc. I saw a couple of clowns myself as I headed out for food. They were causing no disruption whatsoever.
Then in the afternoon we were getting news relayed from the radio about the skirmishes in the west end and in princes street. It seemed bizarre to think that this sort of thing could happen in Edinburgh in the height of tourist season.
Eventually news came that the police had restricted access to Waverley station, so I headed off to catch my train home while I still could. The streets were busy, but pretty normal, until I reached the bottom of cockburn street, where I could see a group of sixty or so police in full riot gear walking slowly south along waverley bridge. This is a extremely strange sight. It was all a bit surreal. Luckily the station was open, just with access limited to the north ramp entrance on waverley bridge. I got my train home fine.
Being nosy I spent some time looking at various news sources when I got home. From what I can tell, and reading between the lines, there was a very small number of activists (20 – 50?) intent on direct action yesterday. Their plan seems to have been to occupy and/or damage the offices of one of the big financial institutions in the west end of edinburgh. The vast majority of the roughly 1000 protestors were not involved in this at all. In all honestly I think they were being used as a distraction by the direct action groups.
The police tactics seem to have been to contain the entire group of protestors in a confined area until they were too tired/hungry/thirsty to continue with the protest.
Bear in mind that I have no particular love for the police (I’ve not forgotten what they were willing to do during the miner’s strike) and I think that flooding the city centre with imported men in riot gear was an overreaction considering the numbers of protestors they were dealing with, but what else did anyone think they were going to do? At least the policy of containment didn’t lead to an all out riot.
It’s obvious that things didn’t remain entirely calm but I can’t get a clear picture on who was responsible for things breaking down into skirmishes yesterday afternoon. Probably a combination of frustrated & anxious protesters and twitchy, nervous police setting each other off. Then again, maybe I’m too willing to be even handed?
When I came in this morning I noticed that various closes and steps up to the high street were closed off and I saw a very large amount of new graffiti around chambers street, potterow and teviot. At potterow union some of the boards protecting the shop windows had been half prised off.
Some of the graffiti is quite entertaining (my favourite so far is ‘make popstars, politicians and the police history’) and I’m hoping to get some photos before it’s removed.
I think I’ll be glad when this G8 nonsense and the related protests are all over. I like an easy uncomplicated life, me.
