The unfreedom of the open road (2): follow-up

As a postscript to the story about the Derbyshire police sealing off Breadsall village and environs to protect G8 delegates from all those nasty unwashed hairy-arsed protesters, here’s an article from the activist newsletter Schnews:

20 to 1 on the Derby

The Derbyshire cops said it was their biggest police operation since the Miners Strike twenty years ago, and it was their advice following “intelligence reports”, that made environment minister Margaret Beckett insist that full security measures be taken.

So, police from as far afield as Brighton and Durham were bussed in to protect 30 environment and development ministers discussing stuff in the lead up to the G8 in Scotland. They met for just two hours before being taken in police convoys to Chatsworth House 10 miles away for dinner! 2,000 police sealed off the area with a five-mile ring of steel fencing and specially laid metal road capable of carrying fully laden riot vans on 24-hour patrol. The operation, costing at least £2m, included the closure of Breadsall village primary school for two days. One SchNEWS reader described the policing as “phenomenal: lines of riot police outside the station at 10am in riot gear including Darth Vader style leg wear.” All this for about 100 protestors – which works out at around £20,000-a-head. As one demonstrator said “Seems it would make more sense to simply give us all a few grand to stay away. I’d have stayed away for less than half of what it cost to police me!”

A demonstration march planned by groups including Friends of the Earth was banned by the home secretary, while a Critical Mass bike ride ended with 12 arrests.

So did they get their ‘intelligence’ wrong? Or was this just a helpful training session and evidence-gathering exercise to help the cops plan for when the G8 meeting proper takes place in July?

(Schnews newsletter, 25/3/05)