Crackdown on thugs

THE shameful picture of a self- styled patriot urinating on a memorial to PC Keith Palmer, killed defending Parliament from a terrorist, was as ironic as it was abhorrent.

This yob – who, we pray, suffers the severest punishment – was ostensibly in London ‘ protecting’ British values. The truth? He was among a far-Right rabble looking for trouble.

Sadly, the ensuing riot was all too predictable. The authorities’ feeble indifference to violence by hard- Left extremists last week – and Labour’s refusal to condemn that mob – emboldened the racists. So it’s welcome ministers have pledged a crackdown on future thuggery.

The proper way to solve arguments is debate, not disorder.

Tolerance, for which Britain is famed, needs restoring. To that end, another image from the disturbances stands out: a Black Lives Matter protester rescuing an injured far-Right activist.

Yesterday, he said: ‘It’s not about black versus white, it’s everybody against racism.’ We could not put it better. From that gesture of fellowship, we should take great heart.

■ AS POST Office chief, Paula Vennells pocketed millions, received a gong, then waltzed into a lavishly paid NHS job. If she had been a resounding success, a few eyebrows might have been raised. But she was such a disaster the reaction is a dropped jaw. On her watch, hundreds of subpostmasters were wrongly accused of theft, made bankrupt, jailed and, in one case, driven to suicide. For that failure, she’s been handsomely rewarded. Instead, she should heed growing calls to quit her new post.