Move along now...

So, there you go. The Guardian headline appears to show the police got it right for today's protest march. Whether or not the preemptive letters were the reason I'd say the fact that only a quarter of the expected numbers turned up was a result. The paper reported one protester as saying, "People who were involved in the protests last year were sent letters, police are threatening to use plastic bullets – I think it's put a lot of people off..."

Despite organiser Michael Chessum's comment that the police had, "...made it more likely that trouble will occur." no such effect was observed. Which goes to show that, as always, students may have youth on their side but they are students precisely because they still have much to learn.

And talking of learning, compare and contrast today's peaceful, if pointless demonstration with last years' mob-rule affair and I think you'll see that a valuable lesson has indeed been taken on board. If the threat of plastic bullets put off three-quarters of the work-shy soap-dodgers, just think how much more effective it would have been had they been threatened with the real thing? 

All of which is why, in the United Dingdom, The Polis will be armed to the hilt and shoot on suspicion. That'll keep the backlog in the courts down to manageable numbers, free up prison spaces and create lots of employment in the arms industries. I'm struggling to see a downside here. 

Mind how you proceed, citizens. ;o)