The NATO summit

The NATO summit came to Cardiff and Newport in the early part of September. To be in those cities at that point you would have thought that Britain was preparing for world war three.

Legions of armed policemen were drafted in, HMS Duncan docked, Cardiff castle became ringed with metal, roads were rerouted and the Celtic manor where the event was held was turned into a Welsh version of Fort Knox.

Overall us British held up our fine tradition of grumbling as the overall mood became one of did two cities really have to grind to a standstill for all of this?

In spite of this the mood remained good, it was something different to see in Cardiff. And even if people did find the police presence a bit excessive, us British do have a tendency to support our servicemen even if we are sometimes a bit skeptical about the cause.

The day of the summit itself left the city ghostly quiet as any expected terrorist attacks failed to appear and any turnout for NATO based protests were rather lower then expected.

Once it was over the extra security measures seemed to melt away over the weekend. Leaving Wales to have its brief time in the spotlight.