Labour party conference causes chaos

Steve Ahearne 27/09/09

The Labour party conference asks more questions than it answers.

I live in the safest street in Britain. If you have been wondering where all the police officers have been this weekend, the answer is here. Brighton. My street to be precise.
I have the (mis)fortune to be able to witness how a police state really looks... and I can tell you that it is pretty scary.
Due to the Labour party conference held two minutes walk from my flat I have passed no less than thirty police officers between here and the shops. That's not counting the armed police, dog handler units, nondescript security personnel, constant helicopter fly-bys, police vans, cars, cycles and motorbikes. The smell of police issue shoe polish and public service (or is that bacon?) is near overwhelming. Many of the roads are blocked off, a covered bridge has been erected over the road between the two hotels the party are using (they have literally knocked a hole in the side of one hotel just to accommodate this one-weekend-only bridge, at great cost no doubt).

The sea front promenade is festooned with huge bollards erected on the walkways forcing casual pedestrians and cyclists to collide together with alarming regularity (A defence against Al-Queda suicide cyclists I presume).
A group of Guantanamo Bay protesters dressed in orange jumpsuits and clutching mega-phones shout their discontent at the first floor balcony of the hotel where Jack Straw and Peter Hain give television interviews. They artfully manage to pretend that the protesters aren't there, and given the elevated position of the balcony all the viewers at home can see is the idyllic setting of Brighton beach awash with glorious September sunshine in the background. Pan up to the next floor and two police marksmen scan the crowd with binoculars. Pan down to street level if you please Mr. Cameraman, the scene looks decidedly more ugly here.
I've already mentioned the massively OTT police presence, the bollards and the jumpsuited protesters but amongst this thrall of Brightonians and the long (long, long, long) arm of the law we find a further collection of decidedly under-represented pressure groups. A solitary man sits on a bench with a hand written plaque extolling the benefits of an independent England. Not one person pays the blindest bit of notice.
A beardy chap with a crudely drawn T-shirt emblazoned with 'UK USA = Torture' tries to force some equally crudely drawn literature into the sweaty palms of a disinterested public. Do these people really believe that Mr. Brown will walk past, see their plaques and exclaim in his famed Scottish brogue “That's it for me then! You have it all sussed, I'm off for a nice lie down, politics is boring anyway Jimmeh!”. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the effort, but can the trumpeting of a one man band ever compare to the full orchestra? Does this current government even have the ears to listen anyway?
A little further from the chaos outside Labours' favoured hotel (is it favoured because The Iron Lady nearly got her come-upance here when the IRA bombed the place? Had to wonder!) I come across six, yes six, police standing around guarding a post box. Your mail is safe Brighton.

So this is what a police state looks, feels and smells like; Terrifying, in a word. Why do even totally innocent law abiding types like myself always feel guilty of something when presented with a massed police force? The real villainous issue here can be summed up in question format; Who is paying for all this? We must be talking Millions of pounds we're told we don't actually have. I'm sure the cost of the policing for this conference alone could furnish every major high street across the country with a 'bobby-on-the-beat' for a clear year.
Could our spendthrift post-recession government be squandering the public coffers needlessly? It's not my place to say.
One plus point though is that I'm getting value for money on the policing portion of my council tax; if only for one weekend.