I think the police do an extremely difficult job and carry it out with unwaivering professionalism and dedication. It is easy to criticize them where, in fast moving situations, there may possibly arise occasional incidents, involving people or persons, and potentially property, where getting the right blend between defending the freedom to express opposing views and maintaining the peace for others to lawfully go about their business, can result in less than satisfactory outcomes.

Andy what's the orignal question?

kettling is more safe than the alternative letting a rioting crowd run hay wire.

it's in bad taste saying that Police army get paid by tax payers adn they work for a living to do it, while at the same time saying this is bad that they earn money ands pay tax themesleves and 14 inncoent poeple were killed.

And where do they obtain the monies to pay Tax John?- they work for it.

MArtin mcguines firing a starter psitol was a reference to bloody sunday.

John you really could do with a lesson in social history. (oops) No that's a fact. oooopss

whats wrong with anons name, I know about as much from it as Andyg

Still don't think there are similarities the Ca\tholics weren't even allwed to have a demo in the area they wanted when they trow stones at the army and ran back to catholic areas they were chased (if' they'd been ketteld they wouldn't have been able to run back to theri own area) let alon have the protest where they wanted,and i can't recall police /army chasing after those kettled now to shoot them, whats the fact that it took 38 years for an apology got to do with legal safe kettling,most people weren't born then, by your defenition anyone who threw stuff during kettles of the last 10- years should apologise, and the I.R.A leaders like Mcguiness have never apologised for killing police.

i will reply to a comment but it won't be for a few days.

Thank you,

I've been taking conformity lessons.

And yea, I have been on the receiving end, but what I wrote is about what you can expect as an official line.

It's not just lefties being silenced. Peter Hitchens has been going on for some time about how any conservative dissent from the leftie agenda is legally smothered or assailed with the charge of bigotry. I recommend a look at Lucy Mangan's current column in the Guardian about how a church nursery volunteer "made" her lose her temper by asking her to sign a petition against gay marriage. The vast majority of the appended reader comments express the view that there is nothing at all controversial about gay marriage and that anyone who opposes it is without question a bigot and motivated by hate. Meanwhile, those who oppose adoption by gay couples are sacked or disciplined, Christians are threatened for wearing symbols of their religion, etc., etc.

"They came for the conservatives", as Niemoeller might have said, but if he had, lefties wouldn't be pasting his words on their walls. They only embrace tolerance for their own views.

1. But they were not rioting in London John. These people were marching peacefully that's the point. They were from the Church organisations. Ian Tomlinson was simply walking home when he was thrown to the ground.
2. Maybe I have it wrong then but I always thought that the British taxpayer payed the wages of the Police and army to protect them. Maybe this is why the British public are kettled, for their own protection that is.
3. John I am of the opinion that the Saville inquiry stated that "there was insufficient evidence to make any finding other than they were sure that McGuinness did not engage in any activity that provided any of the soldiers with any justification for opening fire". Maybe you would like to evidence your allegations?
4. Anon....oh don't bother with this one it will only complicate things.
5.Yes John, the Catholics presumebly free people living under British rule were not allowed to have a peaceful demonstration. As for being chased "back to Catholic areas" could you just evidence this for me?
5a. The kettleing was the division of the whole area John not just a group of people.
5b. It took 38 years to admit that those people were unarmed. Something it would appear that you simply don't wish to accept....for some unknown reason even though it is fact.
5c. John, why should the IRA apologise? Those peaceful protesters that were killed on bloody sunday were teenagers. Most of the people killed were watching the demonstration and not part of it. 38 years John and no apology from the government to the families of those killed.
6. A few days.......I take it that your a Daily Mail reader? When you come round next week John, please try to stick to the question as opposed to bouncing from one subject to another. By the way it's spelt o..o..p..s.
Hope this helps.

despite the fact that I have been reading this website for a good 6 months I am still amazed by the personal attacks on writers -
"I think La Penny ought to spend more time with her anorexia. Hopefully she'll starve"
Really??? Shame on you

All those right-wing neanderthals on here...I remember the days when you were crying like little lambs and playing the victims when the police were cracking your skulls outside Westminster when you demonstrated with the Countryside Alliance?

Forgotten all that, havent you? Police bad when you get your undies in a bundle that they won't let you mangle a fox...Police good when they beat the shit out of anti-Tory demonstrator.

You really are a thick bunch.

"Anyone in South Yorkshire 25 years ago saw what certain members of the Met were capable of when unshackled by Thatcher. I've no doubt that someone older than me could bring out stories from before then."

I remember being very young in 1991 and the Met police marching down my main street, a small coal-mining village on the outskirts of Barnsley, at 4am banging their shields with their truncheons and making an awful racket. They would do this, in shifts, pretty much every night, waking everyone up. They'd bang on doors and set off alarms and try their damn best to intimidate and terrorise the local population, preventing everyone who lived there from even having a peaceful night's sleep. People had nervous breakdowns because of such police behaviour. Nothing new about what the Police are doing, just a continuation of the same old tactics of violence and intimidation.

It's still a rich man's police force, and it still serves a rich man's state.

Someone asked for older Police brutality. I was at Cambridge United in the early 70s. Police beat up this fan. Another said 'That's a bit harsh.' He got beaten up too!

We are fucking slaves in a police state,bastard police bastard new world order,these thugs are fuckin nazis

1991? Met police in Barnsley? Wasn't the miners strike 1983/4?Or did they just pop there in 1991 for the fun of it?
Another unchallenged lefty lie.

"1991? Met police in Barnsley? Wasn't the miners strike 1983/4?Or did they just pop there in 1991 for the fun of it?"

Unlike the moronic right, we have a functioning knowledge of recent British history. There was a series of strikes by the NUM in 1991 to protest the further closure of pits in the Yorkshire region. More pits were closed in 1991 in Yorkshire than in 1984. 1984 was the softening up exercise in many ways, and a lot of the pits that Thatcher had promised would remain open, in the hope they could they to scab, were shut down in this second wave of pit closures.

Again, it's not my fault the right-wing are totally ignorant of the history of their own nation, so if you weren't aware of this please don't try making out like it's my fault!

Hi Delroy,

Pit closures, and police action, continued into the 90’s