Seems you need to pay subscription to get this info.

Anyone got £165 going spare?

and into the library

Some public libraries carry Police Review - or you could 'review' a copy in smiths at no 'charge' ;-)

By Royston Martis

LAST month's mutual aid policing operation of the G8 summit in Scotland could serve as a blueprint for a national police force, according to the chief constable of Tayside Police.

John Vine said that witnessing officers working on the ground at the event in Gleneagles, Perthshire, and at varying demonstrations to coincide with the meeting, made him think of the practicality of setting up a British police service.

About 11,600 officers from about 150 forces in England, Wales and Scotland policed the annual meeting of world leaders last month.

Mr Vine, whose force had overall responsibility for the security operation at the event, told Police Review: 'Officers got on with the job really well, irrespective of any difference in uniform or approach.

'It struck me that in effect, at grass roots, we have a national police force. It is just above that where we have boundaries.'

A provisional report into a review of the 43 police force structure in England and Wales, carried out by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, and led by Denis O'Connor, former chief constable of Surrey Police, was presented to Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, on the 29 July. The Home Office says it is currently being considered.

Mr Clarke told chief constables at ACPO's annual conference in Birmingham this May: 'I do not think 43 [forces] is the best way we should organise ourselves.'

Speaking this week to Police Review, Mr Vine added: '[Officers] just get on with the job on the ground. The essentials of policing are the same.

'You could say if that is the case, you could reorganise force structures easily.'

Meredydd Hughes, ACPO lead on G8 co-ordination and chief constable of South Yorkshire Police, told Police Review only the officers working at the event would have noticed the different force badges and that the public would have been unaware of any differences.
---------------
Show of unity

The G8 policing operation in Scotland last month, which saw 11,600 officers from 50 forces across England, Wales and Scotland working together, showed a national police service in action as forces linked up. Royston Martis reports

There are arguments both for and against a national police force. In the future, officers - irrespective of what part of the country they come from - could find themselves working side by side as part of a Great British service. But you do not need a crystal ball to see what that would look like - for just over a week last month in Scotland, that is exactly what happened.

The G8 policing operation in Perthshire was tagged the biggest ever in the UK, with 11,600 police officers from more than 50 forces in England, Wales and Scotland working together to secure the summit for eight world leaders, facilitate peaceful protest, combat troublesome demonstrators and ensure overall public safety.

In the first week of July, the world's eyes were firmly focused on the policing of the summit at the Gleneagles Hotel in the Scottish town of Auchterarder. That was until the terrorist bombings of the London transport network on 7 July, which coincided with the second day of the summit and captured everybody's attention.

In the wake of those events, describing the mutual aid policing event north of the border pales into insignificance. But the service regards it as a success, especially when compared to recent European G8 summits in Genoa, Italy, in 2001 and Evian, France, in 2003, where violent disorder marred the events.

'It [the success of the operation] did not happen by accident,' says John Vine, chief constable of Tayside Police, who had overall responsibility for the security operation as the host force for the event. 'It was because we started very early in the planning. The team was in place 18 months ago and we visited the previous venues in Genoa, Evian and Sea Island, US [where the 2004 summit was held], and spoke to the police there.'

Mr Vine adds: 'With an operation like this, you cannot practise or rehearse. You just have to hope that everything works. You cannot learn lessons as you can from an annual party conference - the event only comes to Britain every eight years - it is something you have only got one shot at.

'We did a lot of meticulous planning. For example, people saw the airlift of police officers to deal with demonstrators. For the first time in policing history, officers were airlifted by Chinook helicopter. We had planned that contingency with the military. It was not on the spur of the moment.'

Protest events and demonstrations coinciding with the meeting of world leaders occurred at varying destinations throughout Scotland - and the police were there to meet them.

Officers made 358 arrests, which included people from Scotland, England, Ireland, Wales, Norway, Poland, Belgium, Holland, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Denmark, the US, France, Switzerland, Germany, Israel, Italy, Sweden and Canada.

Figures released by ACPO at the conclusion of the summit revealed that during the demonstrations 40 police vehicles were damaged, two police horses from the Met were injured and more than 20 officers were hurt as a result of violence against them.

Standing together

Mr Vine is full of praise for the working relationship between the English and Welsh officers who travelled north of the border - eventually numbering almost 8,000 - and their Scottish counterparts. He says: 'A lot of people wanted to be part of the operation because it was a one-off policing challenge. They wanted to look back in years to come and say "I was there".'

'Officers got on with the job really well, irrespective of any difference in uniform or approach. It struck me that, in effect, at grass roots, we have a national police force. It is just above that where we have boundaries, counties and force structures. These people just get on with the job on the ground.'

He adds: 'The essentials of policing are the same wherever you come from. The only difference is the force badge. You could say, if that is the case, you could reorganise force structures very easily... but you could also say it is not necessary, because [as G8 showed] we can come together anyway.'

Doug Keil, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, agrees. He says: 'The G8-related events and the associated security requirements simply could not have been covered by Scottish forces alone. We are extremely grateful to our brother and sister officers who provided us with first-class assistance through the week.

'We very much appreciate the long hours worked, the camaraderie displayed and the unconditional willingness English and Welsh officers showed in standing shoulder to shoulder with us when events became difficult.'

But not everything went to plan. Police Federations around the country say some officers worked excessive hours, some experienced difficulties getting to and from their operational positions and others felt they were not always properly refreshed. Police Review has also heard reports of officers trained in dealing with public disorder, feeling that they were fulfilling an 'insignificant' role protecting security cordons (PR 29 July).

Mr Keil says: 'There were a number of logistical problems relating to long working hours, transport and refreshments. Not everyone was required to carry out the duties they were best suited for, but we thank all for sticking with us.

'It is amazing how many people accepted that that was the nature of the event and took it well. When you think there were 11,600 officers, almost all working away from home, almost all working in unpredictable situations, there were remarkably few issues.'

Mr Vine concedes that, with hindsight, logistics is an area that could have worked better. '[We] would have put together a bigger logistics team to help with the transport side of things,' he says, recalling how the company providing transport for officers 'was unable to get coaches to pick-up points when they were needed'.

He adds: 'With any operation like this, there are going to be roles that are unexciting.'

Working across borders

Chris Fox, ACPO president, describes the whole operation as a 'tremendous success' and 'a classic example of the way the police service can combine across borders'. Peter Wilson, Mr Fox's counterpart at the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, says it was a 'challenging but successful summit'.

Meredydd Hughes, ACPO lead on G8 co-ordination and chief constable of South Yorkshire Police, gave special praise to the staff at the Police National Information and Co-ordination Centre who facilitated the movement of English and Welsh officers to and from the summit.

He says: 'The reputation of the whole service across the UK was on the line and it delivered. English and Welsh officers' experience with disorder came to the fore. They were very effective dealing with the public they met on the streets in Scotland and, at the same time, they did not lose the ability to mix well with people who might have been worried about the invasion of an English and Welsh "army".

'It demonstrated that with a major event, looking to the future with the 2012 Olympics in London, it does not matter which force you are working with; it is a seamless operation.'

According to Mr Vine, the world leaders shared these views. He says: 'I spoke to [Prime Minister] Tony Blair on the Thursday [the day of the London bombings]. Although he was very sombre, he said he was appreciative of the policing, saying it had been proportionate and measured. [US President] George W Bush repeated those sentiments.'

Tayside Police put particular emphasis on keeping the 4,500 residents of Auchterarder onside before and during the summit, appointing two dedicated community liaison officers, overseen by Insp Athol Aitken. Of particular concern to those officers was the protest march by the G8 Alternative protest group in the town on 6 July, with around 5,000 people taking part.

Insp Aitken says: 'A number of protestors broke through the cordon and attempted to gain further access to the hotel venue. Despite this breach, the only reported damage in Auchterarder following the march was damage to the field crop, damage to two gardens, two broken garden gates and coping stones dislodged from a garden wall.

'Considering the scenes from Genoa and Evian that had been displayed by the media during the weeks and months before the summit, the damage caused in Auchterarder was minimal. In fact, by 9pm on the evening of the march, Perth and Kinross Council had swept the route and had returned it to a condition where no-one would have known the event had taken place.'

He adds: 'People of all ages took the time to stop and talk and shake the officers' hands to congratulate the UK police service for keeping their community safe and providing a thoroughly professional service.'
------------------
THE EFFECT OF THE LONDON BOMBINGS
Tayside Police says the 7 July terrorist attacks on London may have deterred some people from troublemaking during the final days of the G8 summit.

John Vine, chief constable of the force, says: 'When the attacks occurred, we were set for a buoyant day. We had the success of the policing operation on the Wednesday and Britain had unexpectedly won the Olympics.

'[After the attacks], it was important for me to go round and make sure morale was maintained and that people knew we had a job to do and that, perhaps, we could be next... that the summit might be a target. It was important that we were more vigilant than we had been before.'

Mr Vine says some of the Met's officers trained in chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear response returned to London, but otherwise business had to continue as normal.

But what effect did the attacks have on the anarchists who were intent on causing trouble at the G8 summit? Mr Vine says: 'We had a very good intelligence effort and it told us that the bombings split the anarchist movement... some people wanted to continue with their action. Some said that "these things happen". There were other groups that thought it would be inappropriate to continue.'

Meredydd Hughes, ACPO lead on G8 co-ordination and chief constable of South Yorkshire Police, says: 'There is no doubt that events in London meant that those who were seeking publicity for their disorderly behaviour in Scotland were demoralised and those who wanted to protest lawfully felt that their protests were inappropriate.'

Insp Athol Aitken, who led Tayside Police's community policing effort in Auchterarder, where the Gleneagles Hotel is based, says: 'We are more than aware that events in Auchterarder could have been entirely different had it not been for the terrorist events in London.'

But what effect did the attacks have on the anarchists who were intent on causing trouble at the G8 summit? Mr Vine says: 'We had a very good intelligence effort and it told us that the bombings split the anarchist movement... some people wanted to continue with their action. Some said that "these things happen". There were other groups that thought it would be inappropriate to continue.'

Which further reinforces the common held belief that our movement is widely infiltrated , to what extent is open to question but if you consider the nature of protest over the last few years i think it can safely be assumed that they are in a position(s) to direct the movement in general,particularly in the way it mobilises or orchestrates itself for larger scale protests.

I used to post here in the early days but it's been a couple of years since i contributed here due to the increased right wing/intelligence insertion though doubtless some of you will know who i am from the name i'm using above or from different actions etc.

Anyway i wanted to take this opportunity to say in my known name that you MAGOO are an infantile self righteous pretentious holier than thou mealymouthed rhetoric spouting lowlife piece of pondlife scum shit spawn of a garbled spastics cunt and if i ever have the good fortune to catch up with you i will rip out your fucking heart and dangle it in front of your eyes as it beats its final lament before you drop dead ( well not really but it felt good saying it : ) ).

If you want to take that up with me anytime though i'm sure some "real" activists could point you in the right direction .

I've been waiting a good while to say that and now that i've got that little rant off my chest (and yes it did feel good)I'd just like to say to the real revolutionaries out there keep an eye out for an article being distributed around the social centres network and forthcoming mobilisations entitled

The Televised Revolution : Analysis of Independent Media manipulation and consequential Movement Mobilisation.

This will be the first in a series of articles which served primarily as a research project for a book i've worked on for almost 5 years entitled
"A Citizens Britain" which should (luck permitting) be published in the coming year in both ebook and paperback formats.

Free Electronic copies will be made available to all groups concerned with the pursuit of social change and more info will be available on each of the articles including the "hidden chapter" series which is unavailable for general publication.

If anyone knows magoo in real life give his arse a sturdy boot

Peace and Out

You rock

Couldnt agree more about infiltration etc.

I recently read in the book "who runs this place?" by Anthony Sampson that the number of officers in special branch has quadrupled since the end of the cold war, from ~1000 to ~4000. I wonder what they are all doing? Infiltrating quasi-real terrorist groups that even members of parliament (eg. Robin Cook RIP), doubt exist? Yeah right.

The business with the chinook was particularly interesting. I felt having been at the protest that the whole business vis a vis the field, was partly just a big police/PR orchestrated media spectacle.

However, just because they're largely harmless doesn't make these protests useless. I think more effort and analysis should be expended on attacking the utterly CYNICAL recuperators like Geldof.

I am looking forward to your book.