Extinction Rebellion activists dodged a large police presence in central Glasgow yesterday as they closed down the streets around banks in a protest against investments in fossil fuels.
Police tried to contain the march, which began by a statue of the late Donald Dewar MP, but protesters constantly changed direction over about 30 minutes to evade officers.
As about 500 demonstrators split up and scattered through the city centre, police briefly appeared to lose control.
“The politicians are treating this like a business negotiation, but it’s an emergency,” said Danny Moran, 57, a retired police sergeant from Glasgow, who had arrived at the demonstration with his homemade placard.
“I didn’t want to be a policeman any more, I couldn’t handle it,” said Moran, who retired two years ago. “By then you could tell the world was struggling. Why would I want to stand with them [the police], to put pressure on young people to disperse? In a few years’ time these officers are going to say to themselves, ‘I was fighting with the people who were actually right.’”
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Five arrests were made as protesters’ actions included trying to spray paint slogans on city institutions, including JP Morgan. Two protesters chained themselves together outside the offices of SSE, one of Cop26’s principal sponsors, accusing the company of pollution from its Peterhead gas plant.
Jude Bishop, 64, from the Totness XR group, said she would be protesting with about 15 friends from Devon for the full two weeks of Cop26.
Bishop, a retired primary school teacher, said: “I feel that my generation is very much responsible for the acceleration of the climate crisis. We have lived in great comfort and security.
“When Greta [Thunberg] said a couple of years ago, ‘This wasn’t us — you do something,’ it really hit home. I want to make at least some effort to make things right.”
Police, including officers from London and Norfolk, regained control, “kettling” the largest group of protesters for two hours, including one on stilts dressed as a tree who was mocked as a member of special branch.
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Earlier yesterday officers seized an inflatable Loch Ness Monster under Section 20 of the Police and Fire Reform Act.
Four metres tall and eight metres long, the so-called “Loch Ness Debt Monster” was due to float on the Clyde to highlight the debt burden of low income countries, which makes it more difficult for them to attract investment in carbon-cutting technologies.
More protests are planned with thousands of people expected to march with Thunberg and the Fridays For Future organisation.
•Activists have occupied the former Hamish Allan homeless shelter in Glasgow’s southside, a council property, to offer accommodation and food to Cop26 participants after discovering that a group of indigenous elders had been sleeping rough.
