Breaking news - Gleneagles Hotel to host next G8 Summit in 2005
info | 10.06.2004 17:12 | G8 2005 | Free Spaces | Globalisation | London
10/06/2004 17:15
http://northtonight.grampiantv.co.uk/content/default.asp?page=s1_1_1&newsid=4038
Prime Minister Tony Blair will confirm later that the Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire will host next year's G8 summit. Scotland's biggest security operation, involving thousands of police officers will be mounted to protect the world leaders and the local community.
This week police have been on duty at Gleneagles for the Diageo golf championships. Strictly no entry to the hotel and grounds for the general public, guests and golfers have been issued with special passes.
The hotel management took some persuading to let us in to report, so just imagine how tight security's going to be when the leaders of the world's eight most powerful industrialised countries turn up here next July.
This year's G8 summit is drawing to a close on an island off Georgia in America. At nine o'clock GMT, Prime Minister Tony Blair will hold a press conference where he'll confirm Scotland's worst kept secret, that the Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire is the venue for next year's three day summit.
A ring of steel will be thrown around the hotel and thousands of police officers will be drafted in as Scotland mounts its biggest ever security operation.
Rioting and the death of an anti-globalisation protestor marred the 2001 summit in Genoa and internet chatter has already started about ways of disrupting the Gleneagles event. There's also the potential threat of a terrorist attack.
The neighbouring town of Auchterarder will be drawn into the G8 security merry-go-round. Senior Tayside police officers are in Georgia, finding out how the Americans have handled this year's largely peaceful event. Policing Gleneagles with its rural location and rolling grounds will present a very different challenge.
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