Minister and archbishop to join G8 summit protest (UK)

DAN MCDOUGALL

THE International Development Secretary, Hilary Benn, will travel to Edinburgh and take part in Saturday's Make Poverty History demonstration planned before the opening of the G8 summit. <snip>

Mr Benn revealed yesterday that he welcomed the demonstration preceding the conference, adding that he would be taking part himself and would most likely be joined by the Chancellor, Gordon Brown.

He said: "I hope lots of people will turn up. The most important thing is that it is a safe demonstration. In the end, people are gathering because they want politicians to achieve something. I am in fact planning to join the march. I am going to be in Edinburgh anyway." <snip>

The two leaders of the Catholic Church in Britain will also take part in the march. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, and Keith O'Brien, Scotland's Cardinal, will help lead the protest rally, which is expected to draw at least 100,000 people. <snip>

http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=705532005

G8 fears as shortage of cells revealed

http://www.sundayherald.com/50494


By Liam McDougall



SUSPECTS arrested in Edinburgh are having to be driven more than 50 miles out of the city by police to find available cell space, sparking fears that officers will be unable to cope with any trouble-makers at the forthcoming G8 protests.
Police sources say capacity in the capital is at full stretch and have revealed the situation is a wake-up call to police chiefs.

The sources said that last weekend police cells in the city were so stretched that those arrested in Edinburgh had to be transported 16 miles along the M8 to cells in Livingston in West Lothian. The previous weekend, officers had to take a suspect more than 50 miles to the Borders town of Hawick as it was the only vacant cell.

The situation has raised the prospect of chaos for police next weekend as hundreds of thousands of protesters are expected to converge on the capital for the G8 marches.

Frontline officers are concerned they will be forced to ferry violent, drunk or drug-fuelled suspects hundreds of miles before the nearest cell will be found. There are only around 40 cell spaces in Edinburgh.