5 or 6 hundred brave souls braved the media misinformation campaign and 8,000 police to protest. When the meeting was going on, the media scrum of about 40 or 50 were waiting beside a hedge about 30m behind the meeting. I thought this was strange and went down to have a look as I thought that maybe they knew about an impromptu appearance of world leaders on the hill behind. When I got down to where they were I seen that this was the only section of the 3km security fence that didn’t have a 10ft concrete and metal fence but was replaced with 4ft high of razor wire. This was for a section of about 50 metres about 30m behind where the meeting was held and then the 10ft high fence continued over the fields into the distance. After waiting about ten minutes and getting bored waiting for the surprise appearance, I asked some of the media what were they waiting for as they were down at the razor wire and not reporting the meeting. They told me that they were waiting for some people to go over the razor wire. I wished them good luck on that and laughed. As we were talking, someone who looked like a photographer threw a log over the hedge from behind thereby giving someone the means to hold down the razor wire. I went back to the meeting. There were only about four or five protestors amongst this media scrum at the time. About half an hour later when the meeting was over people left to go down to the ‘fence’ as I had done and some people were now walking across the field. I didn’t see who put the log on the razor wire. The whole thing was staged with the security services to give the media their ‘rampaging protestors’ story. A ‘Drop The Dead Donkey’ moment if ever there was one.
Protesters break through G8 barriers ( er … not quite ) You can see in this video where the fence was removed as the camera pans around.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22944599
Damien Day’ Teddy Bear – Drop The Dead Donkey
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ2bvR3BT_g
PS – a big thank you to the PSNI who were helpful at all times, even giving me directions on how to get to the protest, unlike the English police who would have tried to prevent my every move. There were only two police liaison officers at the meeting and only about two or three landrovers further up the road. These police were not dressed up as riot thug squads with helmets, metal rods and masks etc but with caps and boiler suits. Arguments of which I saw one, when asking someone to remove their Palestinian face scarf. This was met with measured argument and not with throwing the girl to the ground and four or five officers jumping on top of her before cuffing and dragging her away as would have happened back home. Even when people went over the razor wire, there was no reaction from the police and the PSNI held back and didn’t rush in with riot shields in antagonising police state type fashion as in England. Maybe our police forces should take note.