The policeman in charge of guarding the G8 leaders at Gleneagles has admitted he lost sleep worrying about a major breach of security at the summit. John Vine said he was concerned that a protester would manage to get through to the hotel itself.

It is hard to imagine today that just a few days ago, the future of the world's poorest people was being decided at Gleneagles. But the G8 roadshow has moved on and their next stop is Russia.

It leaves behind a rather relieved chief constable. If anything had gone badly wrong, the buck would have stopped with him. Chief Constable John Vine was worried that someone would manage to breach the security, get close to the politicians and put themselves in the sights of armed police.

He said: "Yes I was concerned. That was a concern of mine, the fact that we might have an incursion into the secure zone either by demonstrators or by people getting through the security by using a false pass and I did lose a lot of sleep about that but thankfully I'm managing to regain my sleep now."

As it turned out the biggest flashpoint came when protesters broke off from a peaceful march and strolled across an unguarded field right up to the security fence. Now that the dust has settled, the local council is considering whether was it worth it.

Jim Irons from Perth and Kinross Council said: "We believe that the exposure we've had on TV so far will be beneficial in the long term. I don't think there were riots, there was a bit of disorder. But there was some nice Perthshire scenery on TV as well."

There are probably two main reasons for the way things went. The police operation, whatever you think of their tactics, did prevent any truly serious violence. There is also the fact that the vast majority of people who came here to protest against the G8 did so peacefully.