GORDON BROWN has encouraged people to come to Edinburgh to join in an anti-poverty march on the Scottish parliament during the G8.

Edinburgh City Council's leader, Donald Anderson, has opted in and announced that he expects it to be no more violent than the average Fringe Sunday.

So why is an eight-foot steel fence to be erected around the parliament building? There will be road closures, and restrictions on free movement. The police will have to choose between deploying their finite resources at Gleneagles to defend VIPs, or in Edinburgh around the protest to defend its citizens.

If other businesses close for days following the example of McDonald's, and residents barricade their houses against damage, our leaders will find themselves marching through a city that they will have effectively contributed to shutting down... something that two world wars failed to do. How does any of this benefit the citizens who have to live through it, work through it and pay for it?

I hope for the best, but if the worst happens I hope Messrs Brown and Anderson will be made to pay for their role in propagating the event. What planet do they live on?

DAVID FIDDIMORE CALTON ROAD, EDINBURGH