Earlier this month the London Evening Standard announced plans by up to 15,000 anarchists to "wreck Wills and Kate's wedding celebration". The story allegedly came from a "key organiser" from the black bloc. He had also "proudly displayed the contents of his backpack" while sporting a gasmask. The image was given plenty of space on the two-page spread.

If the photo made the story plausible to Evening Standard readers it simultaneously convinced every anarchist in the UK that it was fake. The contents of the backpack were absurd. No activist would be stupid enough to carry a catapult or rock hammer on a protest. And the gasmask was a ridiculous item to include. The police rarely use pepper spray in public order situations and have never used teargas.

The story nevertheless fuelled immense paranoia among activists. Some were convinced that the authorities had planted it so it could be used as an excuse for a crackdown ahead of the royal wedding. Feelings were still running high following the recent revelations about the work of undercover police officers in Nottingham, Leeds and Cardiff. Climate protesters are now appealing against convictions that they received following a protest, which involved one such officer.

In truth, anarchists couldn't care less about the royals. They don't see them as a potent symbol of either the government, or the corporations that they despise. They see them more as an embarrassing throwback to a bygone era. As one anarchist organisation has publicly stated: "Our feelings on the matter are those of indifference… it's capitalism, not feudalism, that is ruining the lives of working people."

As far as I know from the research I have carried out among anarchists in the UK, there are no plots being hatched for the royal wedding by dissenters other than a typically theatrical, nonviolent, performance being openly planned by eccentric professor Chris Knight of the "Meltdown" group.

However, recent news reports suggested that pre-emptive raids were being planned to crack down on dissent prior to the wedding and May Day. Many long-term activists who are well known to the authorities feared that their doors could be kicked in for no reason. For them Friday will be no more than a paid day off work, spent in the pub. They would rather not swap the bar for a cell.

Their fears seem well founded. Last weekend two licensed venues in south London hosting political benefit nights were visited by police. Yesterday, three properties were raided in Brighton. And today three squatted social centres were raided in London.

This morning, at the scene of one of the actions in Camberwell, I was left wondering how much this operation had cost the public purse. Dozens of Territorial Support Group officers in riot gear swamped the area around the squat. Those unlucky enough to be inside were arrested. Across the road a small group of anarchists were looking on.

They were remembering the events of 2002 when protesters had been unlawfully detained by police several miles from the Queen's golden jubilee. Those arrested were later compensated to the tune of £3,500 each. One said: "What a waste of time, we like the royals! They make the upper classes look far more stupid than we ever could."