The 'cunning plan' for policing student protests
As the BBC has reported this morning, a Metropolitan Police senior officer preparing for the student protests against tuition fees last December had what he considered a "cunning plan".
Whether Baldrick would have done a better job than the Police then did of protecting the car carrying the heir to the throne and his wife is not known. But given what happened, it has proved to be a very unfortunate choice of comedic reference.
The cunning plan developed by the Police consisted of "flexibility", according to the internal briefing paper received by the BBC through a freedom of information request.
If you want to read the entire document, it's here [264KB PDF]. A small word of warning: you may feel disturbed if you have a sensitive disposition when it comes to spelling errors, grammatical mistakes and strange jargon (officers are warned to avoid negative photo opportunities such as drinking coffee while "embussed").
Our FOI application also obtained the Police tactical plan [664KB PDF] for the first student demonstration on 10 November, which resulted in extensive damage to the building housing the Conservative party headquarters.
This plan shows how the Police apparently failed to consider any possibility that the Tory offices could become a target for demonstrators, even though they knew the protest route would go past that building. The Police instead focused on protecting the Palace of Westminster and government buildings such as the Department for Education.
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You have to be very careful when criticising other peoples grammar, it can often come back and bite you as the BBC have demonstrated many times. The error with discrete (sic) may just be a simple typing error as all it needs is the final e and t reversing.
There is nothing wrong with the term embussed. It is the simple past and past participle of the verb embus. It is a word borrowed from the military where it originated during WWI when London buses where requisitioned to take the troops to the front line. It remained as a term when troops, usually infantry, used vehicles for transportation the the point of action. Embus and debus are very common even today where the vehicles in question are more likely to be armoured personnel carriers. Mount and dismount are usually reserved for the cavalry.
Applying it to the Police and their people carriers seems like a perfectly natural progression.
It seems that some people will pick holes in almost anything
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Thanks, Martin. Good article.
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Thanks Stuart for a well reasoned response.
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Students? Were they? What all of them? I think not.So the police had a
"cunning plan" to deal with the students did they? What a pity then that
the demonstration was hijacked by the usual suspects,those who appear as
if by magic whichever demonstration it is.
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Mr Rosenbaum,
What you have surprisingly obtained under FOI is a well thought out and reasoned briefing document to police a demonstration in the capital city of England.
You have chosen to make light of 2 comments out of 15 pages of text.
Then you have chosen to poke fun at some text which may not be grammatically correct. The nature of the document lends itself to abbreviated text.That is the nature of the beast with these documents. The intended audience is well versed to receiving and understanding these documents. They are intelligent human beings who understand what the strategy is for the day.
You have made a mountain out of a molehill for puerile journalistic pleasure. This is a complete 'non story'.
Pity the Met Police when confronted with an FOI from an armchair general like yourself. You who clearly has no comprehension of what is being briefed, then attempts to poke fun at the author. Pity they couldn't refuse your request.
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Hello Class,
This is military school and if you don't like it, skid row is that way.
An end to local funding from a Tower Block Slum Community - Move In - The Heavy Corporate Land Developers' with a shed load of cash from foreign investment payoffs in sweat shop goods and contaminated third world recycling, eco branded products and a wide range of new business opportunities in the fields of medical research and ordinance testing.
With that small start up cost from the world’s most prestigious currency and that easy opt out policy at certificate, diploma or Ph.Level, A inflation proof investment is just waiting for you and your dependents of local commerce to take up residence in the newly developed techno park.
Class Dismissed.
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Sean_Tunctan,
If you wished to demonstrate the meaning of the term "non-sequitar" I think you have done a brilliant job. Well done!
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...spelling errors, grammatical mistakes and strange jargon (officers are warned to avoid negative photo opportunities such as drinking coffee while "embussed").
Our FOI application also obtained the Police tactical plan
You clearly got the spell checker out for the obvious criticism but missed the jargon checker for the other obvious criticism.
Waste of space and I pay for this.
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Martin:
I am a former working journalist and a journalism professor at Brigham
Young University in Provo, Utah, USA, and am researching how the
U.K.'s FOIA has impacted the work of journalists in the U.K. My
research has specialized on state and federal FOI law in the United
States as well as investigative journalism. I will be in London from
June 7-17 and would like to visit your offices and interview members
of your team. I haven't been able to locate a direct e-mail address for you, so I am posting here. My e-mail is foiguy@gmail.com.
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Those who think the information should not be made public should speak to the Met who can refuse it.
But what would be as interesting is the 'evaluation' of the operations both in terms of its method and its effect. There is good reason for discussion of these operation if the Authority is willing to provide the information. They have the right to withhold perts of it for various reasons.
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