Taking a hard line on youth is no triumph

12 April 2012

A good day to bury bad news? Yesterday, if you could hear anything above the cacophonous humility of the Murdochs, you may have made out the scrape of shovels as councillors, privy lieutenants and deputy commissioners dug a mass grave, marched bad news up to it and booted it in.

Part-privatisation of the NHS, huge City bonuses, the great badger cull ... in you go! Certainly, it was an excellent day for the revelation that the Metropolitan Police has been inept and deceitful in dealing with student protesters.

The Crown Prosecution Service has dropped charges of aggravated trespass against 109 activists who occupied Fortnum & Mason during the March anti-cuts protest, saying prosecution is no longer in the public interest.

From the start, there was some confusion over these arrests. There were certainly criminal acts committed that day by a small group of black-clad hot-heads. However, all evidence, including clear video footage, suggests nothing criminal happened inside Fortnum & Mason - unless you count a bit of guerrilla book-reading. Now the police have admitted as much. The inspector in charge on the day, Claire Clark, concedes that the protest was non-violent and "sensible". She gave the protesters false assurance that they were free to go - "Thank you very much for your patience no, we're letting you go," she says on the video - but she knew they would be arrested once they stepped outside. The CPS has duly rapped the Met on the knuckles.

It is a small mercy that these protesters, some as young as 15, will not have their adult lives tarnished with criminal charges. However, the damage to the movement is done.

Those with legitimate complaints about tax avoidance and the assault on universities are now written off as a band of extremist agitators. The Daily Express chose to frame this admission of police deception and wastefulness as "Toff yobs walk free over £5m Fortnum & Mason riot".

It contributes to a wider picture of a justice system with skewed priorities. A 20-year-old student, Francis Fernie, has been jailed for a year for throwing sticks at the same protest. The judge told him: "Not only must I take into account your actions but the general day" - in other words, I am making you a scapegoat, young man.

Last week, Charlie Gilmour got 16 months: kind of a disproportionate sentence for being an over-privileged nincompoop.

It is hard to see this as justice. In fact, it looks suspiciously like political policing, designed to make examples of an already disenfranchised youth and quash future protests.

Far from being buried, this spectre may rise up, zombie-like, to haunt our beleaguered Establishment.

Sky's the limit, for a small fee

Does Jessie J's former manager have the right to 20 per cent of all her future earnings? Raymond Stevenson thinks he does, having brandished the forceps in the ante-natal unit of the Essex singer's creativity.

"What we do is more holistic than just singing, it's about self-discovery," he explained. "It is about getting the person to be the best they can be and project great vocals and emotions."

I fear he may have ruined his case by using the word "holistic", the first resort of the quack. If he gets his way, it will be interesting to see if parents, teachers, friends, milkmen - anyone who may claim a stake in an artist's development - follow. Should Laura Marling claim 25 per cent of the album Noah and the Whale wrote about her? Does Amy Winehouse's dealer get a cut? This could set a bad precedent.

Smaller Army, fewer wars

It is unkind to cheer cuts where job losses are involved - but the downsizing of the armed forces surely merits a small hurrah. Defence Secretary Liam Fox is cutting troop numbers by 17,000, which, generals bleat, would leave Britain unable to run sustained campaigns in more than one country at once.

So where's the catch? The Stop the War coalition estimates that the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns have cost the taxpayer £24 billion; our Libyan adventure could amount to £1 billion. These figures, however, are hard to quantify, as The New Yorker's Amy Davidson discovered while trying to add up the finances of America's wars: "There is something almost pathological about the way we don't talk about budgets when we talk about war It is as if we considered it low-minded to decide how long to stay in Afghanistan (or whether to go into Libya) based on the amount it would cost - as if brave men don't think about things like money."

When cuts are being made to non-luxury items such as education and healthcare, standing up to the Army's considerable lobbying power looks like the only reasonable course of action.

Tune in to the real-life Hour

The Hour, the new BBC drama about 1950s newsroom politics, was thrilling TV. The first episode looked like a great showcase for actors Romola Garai and Ben Whishaw - and, just for added topicality, there was a scene in which a journalist slips a brown envelope to a rozzer.

Still, it's ironic that just as the BBC ups its game to compete with American imports such as Mad Men and The Wire, a new contender has emerged. For the next few weeks, there's only one drama in town - though I must say, the plotlines on Newsnight are becoming a little far-fetched.

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