When my sons arrived home recently they told me harrowing stories of the anti-student-fees demonstration a week or so back in London that they attended. The Guardian today features some footage taken by a student involved. A large number of protesters were on their way home at the end of the protest and peacefully leaving but a line of riot police plus occasional charges from horses forced them back into an ever smaller space against another line of police who were not letting them move, and pushing them back towards the skirmishes they were moving away from. The tactic seemed pointless and counterproductive and of course dangerous and provocative. Have a look at this video. You can hear many of the students (not all of them) asking the policemen most politely why they are doing what they are doing, and other innocent questions such as ‘where would you like me to move to?’. Its at http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2010/dec/21/metropolitan-police-kettling-student-fees-demonstration