Here's A Saving We CAN'T Afford To Make...

Demonstrations. A perennial problem for the police. There's the huge costs, the risk of injury, and not just to the police.

So, you can understand why some of the police chiefs would like to ban them, if they could, and freedom of speech be damned. Luckily, in the UK we have oversight of the police by Police Authorities, who help to rein in the...

Oh. Oh, bugger:

Police should have the option of banning public demonstrations to help the force cut costs, a leading Croydon and Sutton police authority member has said.

Cabinet member Steve O’Connell questioned whether dissenters should continue having the “luxury” of public protest as the Metropolitan Police prepares to cut 25 per cent from its budget.

Let me help you with that one, Steve, since it seems you're hard of thinking.

The answer's 'Yes'. It isn't a luxury, either. It's a right.

Speaking to the Croydon Guardian after the meeting, Coun O’Connell said such proposals would only affect large scale protests such as the G20 and Tamil anti-war demonstrations.

He said:”I’m not pursuing a position where we ban demonstrations - it’s a British tradition.

“But we’re looking at a minimum of 25 per cent (police) budget cuts, and if we’re going to look at things like Safer Neighbourhoods and operational policing we need to look at everything.

“The large majority will go ahead, but there are demonstrations like the Tamils and G20 that are so large the police are chucking enormous amounts of resources at them.”

So, you'd ban 'large demos' only. But you're not about 'banning demonstrations'.

OK, well, that's clear...