Police presence

A bit of a fuzzy photo as taken at the end of the afternoon with my mobile phone but I was struck by police tactics at today's Trade Union demonstration in Sheffield. There were a few horses, some motorbikes, a van and a barricade of three bicycles.
I was impressed by the age-range of protesters and the applause from shoppers as the demonstration made a circuit of the city centre. I stood in a crowded square in front of the City Hall for an hour or so to listen to the speakers, the most impassioned coming from a student - a product of a decade of Citizenship lessons. No damp squib, as our PM reported at Westminster but a heartfelt protest not just about pensions but at the erosion of our easily targeted public services, the stealth tax increase in contributions which will go not into the pension fund but to the government, and the across the board raising of the retirement age when there are a milllion young people unable to find work. 

I foresee that most teachers will be ill with stress or have been sacked for incompetence by the time they reach retirement at 68 and many nursing staff will be crippled with back pain or arthritis. As for firemen...