My Edinburgh: John Aberdien and Jenny Fenton

John Aberdien, a novelist from Orkney and recent Scottish Socialist party candidate in the general election, arrived back from Faslane yesterday to find central Edinburgh blocked off.

“We were in Faslane yesterday and came back around 430pm. We were cut off at Harrow and George Streets and I asked a policeman why. He said ‘I have to make the space sterile so I can protect the public from people more vociferous than you.”

His sister, Jenny Fenton, a GP from Bristol, added “I asked why we were being pushed back and the policeman said ‘you don‘t need to know. Under section 60 we can do this.’”