(April 26th 2021) On a slightly more positive note than many of my posts this past weekend saw a demonstration of hundreds of thousands of people (some say a million) in London, against the lockdowns and restrictions. This went without much police supervision or interference. There was very little violence.
Sadly towards the end there were scuffles in Hyde Park and bottles were thrown at Police who were intentionally not wearing riot gear. However, and I am increasingly emphasising this, the trouble makers were few and it seems just out for the fight with the Police. At any demo these days there are the such a wide spectrum of positions represented and always an element who just want to kick off against the establishment, almost irrespective of the core issue of the demonstration.
One does wonder what the Police hoped to achieve by wading into sucha large crowd with so few officers and it turned nasty quite quickly.
Sadly the Police are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. I fear that we are heading towards more and more heavy handed policing to repress potential riots – and one can’t blame them.
The demo does seem to have been mainly peaceful but such a mix of people and purpose, perhaps more an excuse for a party than anything else!
