This police water cannon thing...

...how long before:

Dispersing protesters

Providing the only solution

Extinguishing flare ups before they ignite

Dissolving concentrations of protesters

Cleaning up the streets (okay, enough's enough)

turns up in the papers?


Take a look at the numbers

The politicians love some statistics.

The Six Nations Rugby will attract over 4.5 million viewers, nationally, and will be broadcast to 170 countries.

Today in Parliament attracts 500,000.

Just one of so many examples, take hospital A&E's being overrun:

Cut to one of those spinning-vortex newspaper montages, and my money is on there being some of those “granny left on trolley in corridor” headlines under Thatcher's tories, under her boy's new labour, and now under the unholy alliance. How many words have been flung to and fro the talking shop and across the despatch box, how many 'hear hear's and 'rubbish's and how many impassioned pleas and robust rants, without anything changing?

World Cup Final? 320 million.

Superbowl? 110 million.

We have the best part of a county under water and a government scientific advisor who states categorically that there is now consensus on climate change, and that it is affected by man-made influences, and that the only dissenting voices come from those with axes to grind or mistaken non-specialists piping up where they don't belong. Yet we still have an environment minister who is a climate change sceptic, based on the expertise his degree in history bestows.

This weekend I will be absolutely glued to:

Wales v Italy and France v England (Saturday)

Arsenal v Palace (Sunday)

Ireland v Scotland (Sunday)

Seattle Seahawks v Denver Broncos (Sunday / Monday)

Australia v England T20 (Sunday)

Secure in the knowledge that whatever politicians are feathering their nests, looking after themselves and their mates, globally and locally, nothing is likely to change, and certainly not for the better, until people regain the freedom and the ability to govern themselves.