Murphy's letter from Edinburgh

 

Don't panic it's only the G8 Summit

The G8 Summit is going to be held in Gleneagles this time which is close to Edinburgh and where the bulk of the protests are going to be held.  Just now there are a lot of panic stories going around that it's going to be total mayhem and that the city of Edinburgh will grind to a halt.  Well what's new about that when it's already at a standstill with the amounts of traffic every day.

Each day there is new story concerning this event, and I'm almost sure that some of the people writing some of these stories have hired in someone who has the ability to use a crystal ball given some of the scare stories along with apocalyptic scenarios they have been writing about.  The truth is that the event has not happened yet and no one is quite sure what will happen until these protests take place.  It's time for these people to bring a little bit of calm back to the whole event and wait until it happens before writing about the worst scenarios.

I will be out photographing as much as I can as I have done with protests for the last 15 years in Edinburgh, and I will take it as it comes.  It is going to be a large event and there will be a lot happening over the time that the G8 summit is running.  But I do not believe it will all be doom and gloom like the crystal ball viewers have predicted.  I intend to use my past experiences of protests and a bit of common sense like the majority of people who may come to Edinburgh for this event will.

In 1992, when the European Summit was held in Edinburgh there were a number of small protests and a big one on Saturday 12 December when the Scottish people marched in support of Devolution.  25,000 people took to the streets for this protest, and in all honesty I can't recall any protestors being arrested or rioting on that protest. Although I will say that passions did run high during the Anti War Coalition's protest over the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.  I can only recall about 9 arrests in total for minor offences during that period of time, and I covered the build up of these protests for over two years in total.  I also covered the main one in Glasgow with an estimated 80,000 protesting on 15 February 2003 with none of these protestors being arrested.  It was orderly and the people on the protest were only there to try and make their voices heard without running riot or destroying the city that other people live in.

We have been told that one million people will descend on Edinburgh from all over the world for this event, and that the city will grind to a halt.  But don't forget that some people will come for a specific event like 'Make Poverty History' and then leave once they have protested.  I'm Sure some may stay the full six days and some may come with the hope of causing trouble.  But I'm also sure that the blueprints of previous summits have been analysed and the information passed on to the Scottish police forces on how to handle this event.

Most people who protest don't want to end up in the jail, and I'm quite sure they are not coming with the intention of causing trouble when it could effect them for the rest of their lives.  The people who are intent on causing trouble don't contribute anything to any kind of protest.  This is because the media will focus on the negative side rather than what the majority of genuine people were protesting about.  And in the mayhem the cause of the protest is lost by the few who are out to cause trouble at any cost.

I have great faith that this is not what most people are about and that things will go well in Scotland as the G8 Summit is held in Gleneagles.  They will make their voices heard and then return back to where they came from without going over the top.  But I am also 100% sure that our police forces can handle anything that comes along in the way that they have handled all the previous protests and large events in the past.

Don't take the Scottish police for suckers, that they are not.  They police a large city that has people coming to it from all over the world every year.  They have also handled many protests and large events in this city without the need to be heavy handed.  But they have a job to do, and I'm quite sure that they are well prepared to do whatever they have to do to keep the peace and root out any troublemakers that want to try and cause trouble.

I don't believe that they majority of people who come to Edinburgh will want trouble. Anyway,  Edinburgh is well covered with CCTV and I'm sure that those who do try to disrupt the genuine protesters will be found out sooner than they think.

I hope that the protests go ahead with a carnival atmosphere with the people enjoying themselves before they head home to wherever they came from.  When they are all gone we still be here and no doubt talking about some other issue that concerns us.

Until it all happens, I will carry on as usual and wait until it's all over before I make any assessments of what did happen and how many people were there.

Written by Andrew Murphy 22 June 2005

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