Leslie

Too many ticks to put in the target boxes for any more coppers to come out on the street.

Had it been a politician making a speech or something like that then the streets would have been awash with coppers.

Les

Felix.

I can go along with that to a degree. Since the new government has come in our shift numbers have gone down and now we are running at minimum strength nearly all of the time. Privatisation of parts of the force has caused more police to go back behind the desks and more paperwork has come so that CPS can prove its worth and the government can have possibly more convictions.... kind of goes against everything that the Tories promised...!!!

Apparently though, London sees demos nearly every day for one reason or another - 99% are peaceful and straight forward and go without a hitch. Therefore you don't need many police to do them. It was just this one was 'hijacked' to a degree by the loonies to cause problems.

You can’t blame the police for that and you can’t expect them to be always out if full force just in case.