Communities rise again through ashes of Bonfire Night trouble

Driving down Fettes Avenue on Wednesday afternoon, seeing the lines of police riot vans lined up ready for deployment, I thought some major political event was about to take place.

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It looked like the same number of cops that were deployed during Trump's visit or the Queen's lying in state. I thought I must have forgotten that we were due a state visit from someone very unpopular, when it suddenly struck me this was for Bonfire Night. That's how out of hand events have become on November 5.

As it happened, Bonfire Night seems to have passed without too much trouble in Edinburgh on Wednesday night, which was good to see. Round our way, I heard very few loud bangs and saw very few rockets lighting up the sky. It was almost eerily quiet. The most noise I heard was from the police helicopter hovering overhead. Even our cat stayed outside for most of the evening.