Perth Against Racism to drown out hate speech
Road.
Protestors, who claim they intend to voice opposition to locals’ alleged concerns over limited parking and potential traffic congestion, are expected to gather at Perth Railway Station from 1.30pm before heading into the city centre and starting their demonstration at approximately 2pm.
But a number of groups opposed to the controversial demonstration gathered at the Fair City’s Queens Hotel on Wednesday night this week under the umbrella of Perth Against Racism and detailed plans for a counter demonstration the same day.
Cat Mackay told the gathering: “I am a local resident who has concerns about this march, which is why I got involved. Do I want my daughter brought up in a place where people can march with Nazi salutes, should she not accept her
school friends for who they are?
“We reject the views of the SDL insulting and dividing the people of Perth and claiming parking is the reason - the last thing the people of Perth need is help complaining about parking – that’s our thing.
“We want to drown out any hate speech, we want music and voices, if you have a drum, bring it and bang it as loud as you can.”
One man who came to the meeting from Dundee, added: “The key point about this counter demonstration, they are nasty people and this is all organised around hooliganism. It’s a chance for them to have a barney.
“We will be out in numbers - if we have all the people saying they are not happy with the SDL being here, all together I expect there will be lots more of us than them, so many more they [the SDL] won’t be able to have a go.”
Another man who had travelled from the Glasgow area criticised what he saw as a lack of communication from Police Scotland. He said: “They [the SDL] want you to kick off so they can kick off back. There really should be a police officer here tonight.”
A Perth woman added: “I am really scared because they will try to provoke us. The advice from Charlottesville in the USA is don’t confront the SDL - I don’t even think we need to drown them out, I want this to be a pro-inclusivity, pro-Perth demonstration.
“From what I have read about the SDL, any argument we have with them, they will use that against us, they will take photographs.”
Another Fair City resident said: “We are currently neighbours of the current mosque and want to reiterate they are very good neighbours. They have been round the corner from us for however many years now and we have had no issues or problems.”
Perth councillors Michael Jamieson and Eric Drysdale were among those gathered.
Cllr Drysdale, one of the local authority’s city centre representatives, explained: “Normally speaking you are asked for views and comments on marches and anything else like a protest, and the formal application process has not been undertaken, none of that has happened. That is of significant concern to me.
“What we are now talking about is an ‘escorted walk’ [which doesn’t require a licence] rather than a march [which does], there should have been processes in place to stop this.”
Arif Minhas, who is one of those working towards eventually securing Perth Islamic Society’s move to Jeanfield Road, said the members of the local Muslim community were working with an architect to draw up a design for a potential mosque, and any design would need to be submitted to planning officers at Perth and Kinross Council for approval.
After the meeting, a spokesperson for Police Scotland said: “We are aware that the SDL plan to hold a demonstration in Perth on September 10. Appropriate resources will be in place to ensure that our obligations to facilitate peaceful protest are met and to ensure that the event passes safely.”