Edinburgh prepares

Staff board up the windows of a Princes Street shop. Photograph: Neil McIntosh

Edinburgh's police chief says he's confident there won't be trouble on the scale of Evian or Genoa over the next week of G8 protests here in Edinburgh. But, as our picture shows, some shopkeepers along Princes Street are taking no chances. A number of shops are completely covering up their facades with boards, which gives bits of one of the world's most expensive shopping streets a strangely derelict atmosphere. A few, like the Clarks shoe shop above, are at least attempting to tell passers-by they're still open for business.