Shocking number of protests in Scotland is putting an unfair burden on hard-pressed police officers
With an average of six demonstrations a day, protesters need to start thinking about the impact on Scotland’s police officers and the effectiveness of such regular events
In Russia, one of the earliest signs that Vladimir Putin was a tyrant came in the form of a crackdown on public protest, with the first Draconian laws introduced in 2004 and becoming increasingly strict over the following years. After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, people were arrested for merely holding up a blank sheet of paper – a symbol also used in Hong Kong by campaigners against China’s authoritarian laws.
The right to protest is a fundamental one in any free country and all true democrats should wholeheartedly support it. However, just because we have a right to do something does not mean we should do it. People need to exercise their rights in a responsible way, recognising there may be costs to others.
The cost of the huge growth in public protests in Scotland is being felt by our police officers in particular. In 2025, there were an astonishing 2,190 public demonstrations – an average of six a day – that required a police presence. The result was an overtime bill of £1.1 million and nearly 3,000 cancelled days off for officers, which the Scottish Police Federation warned was causing “increased stress and sickness”.
An important ‘day job’
Many of the protests centre on the fractious issue of immigration and asylum seekers, with 144 such demonstrations since January. Just over half took place in Falkirk, mostly outside the Cladhan asylum hotel. These protests are legal and should be allowed – people have a right to express their views.
However, it’s hard to see what such regular demonstrations are achieving, other than putting undue pressure on public services and preventing police officers from doing their rather important day jobs of investigating crimes, catching criminals and keeping us all safe.
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But then, in Glasgow last month, there was a large-scale protest and counter protest in which people engaged in violence, disorder, and hate-motivated crimes so at least some of these ‘protesters’ are willing to commit crimes themselves.
We live in a free country. However, abuse of those freedoms must be called out. It’s time to give the hard-pressed police officers of Falkirk, and elsewhere, a break.