Let us pour water on trouble oil protesters

THERE were pictures all over our papers at the weekend of Dutch police using water cannon to break up a Just Stop Oil protest. What a pity the Met cannot do the same. Of course Boris Johnson, when Mayor of London, presciently ordered water cannon only to be overruled by that preening wimp Theresa May, who was then Home Secretary.

The police showed what they can do when they are really determined during the coronation. If it can be done for the King then it can be done for his subjects, yet all the will seems to have oozed away and Just Stop Oil protesters are once again holding up traffic. They are engaging in conduct likely to cause a breach of the peace but as soon as such a breach does occur the police arrest the outraged citizens not the protesters.

Arrest followed by swift court appearances followed by custodial sentences would provide a deterrent which a group of policemen tamely walking alongside the demonstratrs does not. Water cannon would provide a deterrent but I have no doubt that were it ever to be deployed the police would be on hand to offer the demonstrators cups of tea and dry clothes.

WHILE on the subject of deterrence, well done to the judge who sent down a couple, who beat and burnt their 10-month-old baby, for the best part of three decades. The sentences of 29 and 27 years are horrible but just – and might cause other brutes to pause. The mother is now 22 and will be 49 before she has any chance of release while the 30-yearold father will be 59. Effectively they will be spending most of their adult lives behind bars and are likely to be given a hard time by their fellow inmates.

Women prisoners in particular hate child killers. Many have children of their own, seeing them only on visiting days while others have already lost theirs to social services. That is why those who ill treat babies are often isolated for their own protection.

Such a miserable prospect is a true deterrent but deterrence is also what should be driving policies towards less horrendous crimes: it is the only way to stop the small boats, stop thieves and stop people carrying knives.

Yet the forces of law and order appear to have given up, the politicians spout worthiness and do nothing and the rest of us are expected simply to put up with it.

Maybe the Dutch police could come over here on secondment?