Summit securityEfforts to jar the conscience of the world's most powerful leaders and eradicate world poverty can have unexpected consequences.
As countries across the globe, not to mention an estimated two billion television viewers, prepared for the Live8 concerts and G8 summit protests yesterday, supermarkets were reporting a rush on blank videotapes while there were also suspensions of deputies in the Scottish parliament. Organisers said preparations for the 10 Live8 concerts worldwide, which will feature 100 artists, were at an advanced stage.
In Edinburgh, police are also making preparations for one of the biggest marches ever to be held in the Scottish capital.
Organisers said they expected between 100,00 and 200,000 people to march through the city tomorrow as part of the Make Poverty History campaign.
In London, Sir Paul McCartney is expected to open tomorrow's Hyde Park concert with the opening line of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: "It was 20 years ago today . . ." and close it with Long and Winding Road, a rallying call for people to head to Edinburgh for the G8 summit on July 6th.
Police in Edinburgh are hoping - and are cautiously optimistic - that Bob Geldof's call for one million people to mass in the Scottish capital will not be heeded, but they said yesterday they were facing one of the biggest challenges in their history.
With memories of trouble at previous G8 summits still fresh, particularly the Genoa summit in which one protester was killed, police in Scotland will be joined by colleagues from England to mount a huge security operation.
Paddy Tomkins, chief constable of the Scottish Lothian and Borders police force, said: "We will be making every effort to ensure that a relatively small number of people with criminal intent do not exploit the laudable aims of the tens of thousands of people travelling to Edinburgh to seek a better life for the poorest and most vulnerable."
The G8 summit is being held at Gleneagles in Perthshire, north of Edinburgh, but protesters, who have already begun arriving from across the world, will not be allowed to march past the summit venue - or even its five- mile long fence - after police and the local council refused permission. In the Scottish parliament yesterday, Scottish Socialist Party members were suspended for waving banners in protest at this decision.
In London, the 205,000 people who have tickets for Hyde Park tomorrow were yesterday told it would be a momentous, but sober day. Alcohol has been banned at the venue and only soft drinks and water will be allowed, a royal parks spokesman said.