Policing demonstrations in Parliament Square by pro-Tamil supporters has cost in excess of £9m and has led to some pre-planned local operations “being cancelled or significantly altered” to ensure sufficient numbers of police officers are available to oversee the protests.
Speaking at this month’s meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority, Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said the protests were a significant issue for the force and that attempts to reach out to Tamil community leaders had so far failed to curb the disruption caused to other Londoners.
Last week the Commissioner told the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee the force has to provide “such a level of resources that it is reducing policing on the streets of London.”
Ah yes,
It seems the Met are learning from their parlimentarians, if you get into trouble – find a scapegoat and blame them for your troubles.
The fact is that the Tamil protest has been one of the most peaceful that London has seen for a very long time. The amount of police on duty is excessive and not required for such a demonstration. The truth is that the Met have ‘over-supplied’ the Police for this protest simply because it is happening outside Parliment – and yes, you’ve guessed it, our Parlimentarians no longer feel safe because their dirty little secrets are out. It’s compounded by the Met’s own failings at the G20 because the Met actually has to watch it’s step these days – which of course means policing protests properly – which of course, costs more.
The Met are using this as an excuse to cover their failures elsewhere. Are they saying that one demonstration and the Met ‘struggle to police the streets’? It’s not very reassuring for the public.
What are they going to do when there are 3 or 4 demo’s a week later this year / next year as the recession really bites and the disgruntled masses take to the streets? Will we see the streets of London become like the wild west?
It’s outrageous that without any basis the Met are allowed to turn public opinion against the protesters – what is £9m as a percentage of the Met’s budget? How much has been spent on false injury claims, dodgy expenses claims, defending their poor record as being an ‘equal opportunities employer’ in court? I think in perspective the £9m is chicken feed.
There was a time when the police got on with ‘policing’ – now it seems the infectious disease of ‘spin’ has infiltrated every area of public service, it’s no longer about how well you do your job, but how well you can convince others you can do your job!
The exact same thing is now happening to the Canadian province of Ontario. Millions have been spent policing these Tamil Tiger protests.
It’s a shame that peaceful protests are now hijacked by groups sympathetic to terrorism.
As a Brit who pays taxes I am appalled that this can go on. The protest is illegal, most British citizens don’t care and our economy is in freefall without this sort of crap going on.
I’m very sad that maybe as many as 20,000 civilians may have died (entirely unverified numbers of course), but this has to be put in the context of the over 200,000 that died during the war as a whole and the over 100,000 have been killed in Iraq. Wars cost lives, the Tamil people need to realise this.
They then need to realise that this war was entirely the creation of the LTTE. There have been countless attempts by Tamil leaders and political parties to deal with the (very real) injustices their people have had to deal with in post-Independence Sri Lanka, but all of these have been undermined by the ruthless, disgusting thugs at the LTTE who were consistently pursued war, funded by a remote and overly-romantic diaspora who fell in love with the idea of freedom fighters.
Now that that war is over, the key thing is not to try to re-start it or moan about what happened in a horrific war. No, instead, now you have to help re-build. If you can afford to sit around in parliament square, why not instead buy a plane ticket and fly to SL and help out? Our why not raise money and help the de-mining process and then get the Tamils back to their villages and homes?
There are two clear paths here. It’s a shame that so many people seem bent on trying yet another wrong to right previous ones. There was the chance to be so much more grown up.
TawkinSenz: “It’s outrageous that without any basis the Met are allowed to turn public opinion against the protesters”
By disrupting traffic and public transport the protesters have managed to alienate many people all on their own.
I walked through Westminster during one protest, I saw a lot of Police officers working very hard to try and facilitate the public who wanted to use the pavements around Parliament with at the same time dealing with people who were spilling out from the square itself and, in some cases, being quite aggressive to the Police.
If the demonstrators want the support of the public they might want to consider causing a bit less disruption.
People should respect the fact that these protest cost millions of pounds to police and that police officers are required elsewhere to prevent crime. I feel that the Tamil’s voice has been heard and The British Government will try and do what they can , bearing in mind , that The Sri Lankan Government will only conduct politic’s in a way that they so choose. The British Government cannot make miracles happen and the War is now over so the protestors should now move on with their lives and try and offer something positive to their friends and families back home. The United Kingdom is in a grip of a recession with numerous other problems and we need to save money now and not fork out to police a protest that does not directly concern the United Kingdom. I am personally saddened by what has gone on in Sri Lanka but the war is over and enough is enough and people must honestly move on with their lives. Do you honestly think that The British Government can influence The Sri Lankan Government? The protestors must know the answer to this question and now help The Metropolitan Police and call it a day.
Martin,
Of course – how could I forget, the thousands of lives lost in a country which has been in an on-off civil war created by the UK’s (and the East India trading company’s) un-requested intervention in the 1700′s – is completely insignificant compared to the ‘inconvenience of the modern day commuter’.
Really, I thought you had a bit more morality than that.
I had no problems getting through the protestors on ony of the days – they were friendly and all they wanted is for me to take an read their leaflets explaining the issues.
I would also be interested in which ‘members of the public’ needed to use the pavements around parliment square – all I could see is tourists, MP’s, civil servants and journalists. The tourists and journalists were just there to take photos and the MP’s and Civil servants were too busy wasting the tax payers money which wasn’t already attributes to the Tamil protests.
Some people need to get things into perspective – protesting is not about ‘getting the public on your side’ – I think you’re getting confused with ‘politics’. The costs of this particular protest is being blown out of proportion so the Met can use it as an excuse for their failure to tackle other crimes.
Of course, you should wait and see how the investigations into alleged Met corruption on expenses goes before accusing protestors of ‘wasting taxpayers money’.
As for the other posts on this blog – I think some people need to read their history books before making statements like “Do you honestly think that The British Government can influence The Sri Lankan Government?”.
Well seeing as we ruled the country as a colony for over 200 years then I think this answers that question quite simply – YES.
Is this war small compared to the Iraq war – of course it is – but as we started (or helped start) both of them I don’t really see the point, unless it’s to show we’re getting better at ‘killing foreigners’ in countries which we have no business being in.
We have exported tyranny and unrest across the world for hundreds of years and now it’s coming home to roost – the Sri Lankan’s lost their independence as a nation in 1796 and have sufffered instability and war ever since – the British public suffer some commuter inconvenience which is a result of that intervention and it’s moan, moan, moan.
I am amazed by how shallow some people in this country are – and how ignorant they are of our own history. I wonder how many of the posters negative opinions above are driven by the fact that they see these Sri Lankan’s as foreigners – or non-white, because their objections surely cannot be along political lines where the UK is historically completely in the wrong.
…and finally, as for the protest being “illegal” – well only in the cooked up fairyland of Parliment who feel it needs protection from the people it governs. Again this is of historical significance as the only Governments who needed to quell protests and protect itself from the people were Governments who went on to commit crimes against it’s own nation – Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Mugwabe etc.
When are people going to wake up and realise the right to protest is one that should be held above all others – otherwise there is no way of stopping Totalitarian regimes taking control. It doesn’t matter if you agree with the protest or not – you need to think beyond your own narrow self interest and take in the wider picture.