Policing protesters

Saturday saw the greatest state occasion for 70 years. The Coronation, watched by hundreds of millions all over the world and attended by 300 leaders and dignitaries, was conducted with all the brilliance associated with British pomp and circumstance. That it went off without a hitch was testament to that inherited expertise and all the training and hard work that underpinned it.

Security was a great concern, especially for the King’s procession to Westminster Abbey and back to Buckingham Palace accompanied by the massed ranks from the Armed Forces of the UK and the Commonwealth. On the fringes, republicans protested against the monarchy as they are entitled to do in a free country. What they are not allowed to do is disrupt proceedings because they do not like them. Democratic freedoms do not extend to causing harm or preventing lawful events going ahead.

It was feared that extremists would draw attention to their cause by scaring horses or locking themselves to objects. The job of stopping them fell to the Metropolitan Police, which arrested about 50 people on suspicion of seeking to cause trouble. Few have so far been charged and some have been exonerated, but that does not make the police action wrong and nor has it turned this country into a neo-fascist state, as some of the more absurd reactions have suggested.

Typically, Labour and Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, have jumped aboard a bandwagon to denigrate the police for ensuring that this great event was not ruined by a tiny minority of zealots. The Met deserves the nation’s gratitude. Now its officers must show the same resolve dealing with Just Stop Oil protesters blocking the highways.