Whilst Mark Thomas wrestles back some of his liberties by having his DNA removed from the register, it has come to light that the police approach members of protest groups to act as informers, offering cash incentives for spying and threatening them with criminal records if they do not obey.
Meanwhile, members of the political elite and the blindingly ignorant audience on BBC's Question Time completely fail to understand the unjust nature of peaceful protestors being smacked round the face and kettled into small areas for hours with no food, water or toilets.
It's to be expected at protests, claims the bejewelled lady from the Institute of Ideas. It's a funny world where David Starkey is the only one defending the right to protest and accurately portraying the police as paramilitant thugs.
Noam Chomsky wrote about the efforts of big business in crushing labour unions through violence initially and then their use of propaganda. It can be easily translated to the portrayal of the G20 protestors in the right-wing media.
"The idea was to figure out ways to turn the public against the strikers, to present the strikers as disruptive, harmful to the public and against the common interests. The common interests are those of "us", the businessman, the worker, the housewife. That's all "us". We want to be together and have things like harmony and Americanism and working together. Then there's those bad strikers out there wo are disruptive and causing trouble and breaking harmony and violating Americanism." (Chomsky, Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda, pp. 24-25)
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