two latter functions have been pretty much ignored because they don't patrol on foot anymore, nor do they know their patches anymore. The police aren't part of the community working for the community - they have become aloof and bureaucratic... as unloved as policemen in other countries who never were anything other than armed agents of the State.. What if the postman has a child who would like to go to university, but feels they cannot afford to send that child to university? It's not an issue. Very few people "send" their children to university. It's a middle-class concept. Working-class people are used to paying their own way in life. And anyone aged 18+ (which all but a very few University students are) is an an adult, and should be paying their own way, not relying on their parents. Is a group of people who have been forcibly held in a limited space for several hours less likely to indulge in violence and vandalism than the same group of people without that containment? Leaving aside the legality or otherwise of a blanket detention of anybody who happens to be in a certain area, it does seem a very effective way of ensuring confrontation. I suspect that police morale and police/public relations are going to suffer as this continues. Any protester with face covered should be removed from the demonstration and taken for questioning. The presence of cameras everywhere means that anyone who covers his/her face is seeking to avoid being