Spleen, I agree absolutely but there's no point in telling Richie. As far as he's concerned, everyone who was there on Saturday is tarred with the doctrine of equal responsibility. Therefore, those of who wanted a peaceful march have no right to hold one because of a few nutters who weren't even connected with the aims of the demonstration. I'm not sure whether his attitude is more reminiscent of an ostrich with its head in the sand, or somebody pissing into the wind.

Imagine the outcry if the authorities closed every pub in the land because a handful of people, who couldn't hold their drink, wrecked everything in sight. Or how about if the authorities banned football because of the violent thuggery of a tiny minority of hooligans.

I wonder what he'd say if those scenes on Saturday were not of the centre of London, but of protests in any one of a half a dozen Arab countries. Yeahh I know. But this government wasn't elected either.

And by the way, of the 200 and odd arrests, 138, or knocking on for 3/4, were charged with nothing more than aggravated trespass. IE., for peacefully protesting in Fortnum and Mason's. Weepable ennit?

But as I said, there's no use telling Richie. Our betters have spoken, and all we can honourably do in response is to touch the forelock and bend the knee. Of course we'll also need to suffer the ignominy of the dole, of having our governmental services shut down, of seeing our children begin their working careers with £27,000 of debt round their necks, and of seeing our police so depleted that they won't be able to control the riots that will result.

Citizens arrests, my arse.