On the Beat

Last weekend, I went on another anti-SDL (aka EDL) march. Edinburgh Council decided that it was fine to let the EDL march through the city in the middle of the biggest cultural event in Europe - the Fringe as well as the Edinburgh International Festival - which host performers and visitors from all over the world. In case you are not aware, the EDL have a strong anti-immigrant and more specifically anti-Muslim stance.

I wasn't quite as angry as I was last time, and more with the local council than the moronic EDL, but I was sufficiently angry to get me to spend several hours in the company of a rather wonderful but distinctly motley crew of people who similarly object to racists marching through our city.

We marched from Chambers Street down to Holyrood, by a route that seemed designed to cause as much traffic disruption as possible. I don't know how marching routes are planned, but I imagine the march organisers - who want as much disruption as possible - and the council and the police - who don't (I presume) get together, batter it out and come up with a compromise route that reduces traffic disruption but gets the march noticed.

If I were the police, I would take a march from Chambers Street to Holyrood down Guthrie Street, onto Cowgate, and down to Holyrood. Simple, direct, easy to police. And only blocking one major thoroughfare.

Whereas we marched down Chambers Street, onto South Bridge (blocking South Clerk St, one the main roads into the city), down the Mile, along St Mary St (blocking any traffic trying to avoid South Bridge, as well as anything going down the Pleasance. But who would want to go down the Pleasance during the Festival?!) and then along Holyrood Road, into the park, and round the back of the Parliament. I guess those wanting to cause maximum disruption won the argument.

There were about eight hundred anti-racist marchers. (The police said 350, way too low, and 150 for SDL - way too high.) We lined up behind barriers and a police cordon. There were a lot of police. An awful lot. We chanted, some people sang. There was a rather festive feel.

This changed when the BNP EDL SDL arrived. They had matched from Waverley, apparently, down the Mile. There were only about fifty of them, though I couldn't actually see any of them: they were also behind a police cordon, and barriers, and only those right at the front could see them.

There were lots of anti-racist chants. "No more violence, no more hate" was kind of undone by people shouting "you'd be running if it wasn't for the police". It was also quite lighthearted too; some people dressed as nuns blew large soap bubbles; some acts from the Fringe (I think) sang songs.

It was a bit strange not being able to see the SDL, though probably a good thing: they were seemingly quite violent, with four arrested.

I didn't stay to the end. I had a show to get to...

And I'm still annoyed at a bunch of fascists taking over the streets of my city.

The pictures I posted of the Scottish Parliament reminded me that I hadn’t posted pictures I took during a tour of the building in August: life and death had got in the way. I had been meaning to go around the Parliament for a long time; it only took me four years to get around to it!

I have posted other pictures of the outside of the Parliament building; I really like it: I think it is an interesting shape, full of detail.

The inside is no different. Unfortunately, there are only a very few parts of the building that they let one photograph: the public areas and the debating chamber. Other parts of the building were off limits, which is a great pity, because there were some really interesting bits – lots of nooks and crannies and curious, abstract shapes.
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Walking to the Crags and Arthur’s Seat, I walked by the Scottish Parliament. I love this building (and I must process pictures I took inside during the summer, too), and it was fascinating to see it in the different lights.