Met. Police seek to take away democratic right to protest.

In yet another shocking development from the developing UK police state, Chief commissioner of the Met. Police Paul Stephenson (the sir has deliberately been left out here) has refused to rule out the possibility of banning further protests in London city.

"It is one of the tactics we will look at and something we will keep under review, and if we think it is the right thing to do then we will do it" he has said.

Whilst it is important to remember that demonstrations cannot be banned in the UK (yet) marches can be - meaning that we still retain the right to gather in any particular area to demonstrate but the police will have the right to control our movements and where we are allowed to congregate.  Under these plans we will no longer be able to march from location to location.  So, basically when turning up to a demonstration you will be turning up directly at the police 'kettle' and then they will be able to move us where ever they like, most likely out of sight from the public.

How can Britain, a nation that prides itself as being a pioneer of democracy, allow such plans to be openly discussed by our police?  Especially using as valid reasoning some small-scale violence witnessed at recent protests.  The UK is not the only country in Europe to face violent protests in these times of austerity.  Countries such as France, Greece and Italy have been rocked by rioting in recent months, yet none of these states have proposed such preposterous measures.

To quote the words of Aaron Porter, the president of the NUS (National Union of Students) "Peaceful protest is an integral part of our heritage and it is the responsibility of the police to help facilitate that."

I cant help but think that should such measures ever come into effect the resulting backlash would be an increase in violence and destruction at any future event fueled by anger and frustration aimed at the police.  This however may be just the reaction the met are looking for in order to use the stories published in the media as a tool to discredit those who attend protests.  There can be no denying how recent police tactics have been designed to enrage protesters who are falsely imprisoned for hours in the freezing cold with no access to food, water or toilet facilities.