"the ancient British roar of "Tory scum'"

Every fucking time.

Every fucking time an overwhelmingly peaceful demo takes place, the black bloc dickheads start smashing stuff (not in a fun HULK sort of way), a police officer breaks a nail and several protesters end up in hospital. And every fucking time, everyone cries a vast river over the poor coppers, tormented by those nasty violent class war types.

Some insightful comments from my delightful colleagues:

"Yeah, well, I'm not saying police brutality's okay, but at the end of the day, if someone's hitting you with a stick, I think you should be allowed to hit them back, push them over, whatever. Common sense, hurhur, let's be honest, it's political-correctness-not-kicking-people-to-death gone mad."

Oh, the classic "I'm not being a racist/sexist/bastard/fan of kicking the proles when they get out of line, but, I hate black people, women, everyone who isn't me, and especially the proles." And no, you don't have the right to lash out, even if "they started it": not if you're the representative of the state. At the very pissing least you have a responsibility to abide by the very laws you are supposed to be enforcing. And mad props on suggesting "pushing people to the ground" - we all know that always ends well!

"Idiots. I bet they don't even know what they're protesting about, they just like kicking off."

Well hey, that's a super-shrewd remark, Idiot Colleague: it's good to know your incredible unbiasedness allows you to look into every single marcher's mind, all the way from your nice warm Canary Wharf office. You haven't spoken to a single person there, you've never been on a protest in your life, but you just know. It's like magic! For people who aren't very bright!

"Hur, hur, doesn't look like any of them are too poor to go to university!"

Because it is only allowed to care about things that affect you personally: there is no such thing as empathy, or even joining the dots and observing that decreased social mobility might have a knock-on effect, forming the kind of society that you yourself don't want to live in. Nah. They just "like kicking off".

Luckily all the not-very-bright Tory twats sit on the opposite side of the desk, and my side is populated by the Sensible Left. We are sharing furtive grins, swapping placard slogans, and emerging to issue concerted SMASH when the Tory chorus just gets too much. Just in case, I'm holding back my ace: photographic evidence of the students who really ruined it for the rest of us...

Edit: My manpanion has made the best comment on proceedings. In response to someone's observation that the SWP was "up to its old tricks", he simply remarked that SWP has no tricks. Funny to approximately seven people.