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Mail Online - Peter Hitchens blog
An interesting blog entry on policing in New Labour's Britain by Peter Hitchens.
I held out my hands in a shrugging, mock-pleading gesture and began to ask why I couldn't just walk on the pavement undisturbed. "I am", I began to say " a private person on his way to Paddington station".
I didn't finish. I couldn't. The figures began bawling again, in a strange robotic chorus of Arthur-Mullard-like voices. And this is what they bawled :"It's not debatable!" . Then they bawled it again "It's not debatable!". And then one more time, I think. I don't think words like "debatable" come naturally to such people. I think this is what they had been trained to say in some riot-rehearsal long ago, to clear aside some imaginary band of quarrelsome troublemakers with fancy ( and outdated) ideas about their rights. Instead, they had to make do with me, the only man in London silly enough not to flee at the very sight of them. It even crossed my mind to think that they might have been longing to bawl "It's not debatable!" ever since they had been trained to say it, and here was their chance.
An interesting blog entry on policing in New Labour's Britain by Peter Hitchens.
I held out my hands in a shrugging, mock-pleading gesture and began to ask why I couldn't just walk on the pavement undisturbed. "I am", I began to say " a private person on his way to Paddington station".
I didn't finish. I couldn't. The figures began bawling again, in a strange robotic chorus of Arthur-Mullard-like voices. And this is what they bawled :"It's not debatable!" . Then they bawled it again "It's not debatable!". And then one more time, I think. I don't think words like "debatable" come naturally to such people. I think this is what they had been trained to say in some riot-rehearsal long ago, to clear aside some imaginary band of quarrelsome troublemakers with fancy ( and outdated) ideas about their rights. Instead, they had to make do with me, the only man in London silly enough not to flee at the very sight of them. It even crossed my mind to think that they might have been longing to bawl "It's not debatable!" ever since they had been trained to say it, and here was their chance.