As Edinburgh police crank up the now annual Operation Moonbeam to try to quell Bonfire Night trouble before it begins, I’m baffled by the SNP’s reluctance to crack down on what is a constant problem and a massive drain on police resources.
The Nationalist government likes acting tough on things like ramping up income tax, trans rights, and this week, breaking up rural estates which support hundreds of badly needed countryside jobs.
But when it comes to a very obvious annual problem like the anti-social use of fireworks, enthusiasm is becoming a lot harder to detect.
For years now I have been calling for tougher restrictions on the availability of fireworks, and three years ago the apparently “groundbreaking” Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles (Scotland) Act was passed, which among other things empowered councils to impose firework control zones.
Nine zones have been introduced in Edinburgh, with one going down the middle of Hay Drive in Niddrie, the focus of the 2023 riots, presumably meaning it will be OK to fire off rockets on one side of the street but not the other.
But some of the Act’s strongest measures have now been quietly dumped, like a new permit for buying fireworks, along with a limit on all sales to a few weeks at this time of year.
So much for the SNP’s assurance in 2023 that there was only a ‘slight delay’ to the new licensing system’s introduction.
Instead, the SNP has put the onus on Police Scotland to use existing laws, but from the horrendous vandalism which blighted Craigentinny in 2017, to the mayhem of 2023 when more than 60 police officers were injured after being attacked with fireworks and petrol bombs, it took a huge effort from officers to keep a lid on trouble last year.
But there was still extensive disruption, and in August a 17-year-old was jailed for 18 months for rioting on Calder Road on November 5 last year.
In fairness, police efforts this year have already borne fruit, with two men appearing before West Lothian Sheriff Court this week, after 200kg of fireworks were seized from a lock-up in East Calder, following searches of several houses in Granton and Pilton.
That only goes to show that the intention to cause trouble in the city is still very much alive and there is a roaring trade in pyrotechnics. There will be plenty more in circulation where that batch came from.
At least Edinburgh police officers will be issued with body cameras, which it is hoped will enable them to track down troublemakers more quickly, although rioters will not make it easy for them by wearing masks and hoods.
What galls me is the way these cameras have been hailed as some great advance, with Justice Secretary Angela Constance saying it was a “milestone” and “transformational technology.”
Yes, so transformational that the Metropolitan Police completed their introduction to all officers in 2017, and even Transport for London staff were kitted with them last year. Instead, Ms Constance should apologise for the unacceptable delay in bringing Police Scotland into the 21st century and for ditching important legislation.
