I've been wondering for a few days what to write about the ongoing far right unrest which is blighting many towns in the UK at the moment. I thought about musing on the causes, or the types of people who are inciting the mob, or even about those who are burning cars, looting shoe shops, or attacking the police, supposedly all in the name of three murdered little girls in Southport.
Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA
But then I realised that the people I'm thinking about most is the police officers, out there, trying to keep a lid on this aggression and violence, while at the same time actually defending the right to protest, even when the 'protesters' aren't really interested in any particular cause, they're just spoiling for a fight.
These police officers aren't much different to every other decent person in the country - they have highs and lows, hopes and fears, friends, family, they are mums and dads, brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles. They worry about repairing the car, or getting the boiler serviced, or how they can save money on their electricity bill. The difference is that when they go to work, they put themselves in the way of some of the most difficult, unpleasant and dangerous people, in order to protect the general public. And right now, seemingly across the country, they are having to do it day in, day out, and are facing violence and anger on a scale we haven't seen since the riots of 2011.
I'm retired now, but I am there in spirit with my friends, family, brothers and sisters in the police service, across the country. Be strong, be brave, look after each other and the decent majority of the public, who absolutely support you and what you are doing. You are heroes.
Finally, there are always critics, and the police service is of course the brunt of much of it, especially from the gutter press, and certain politicians. But I always remember this quote, attributed to US President Theodore Roosevelt. I think of it often, and used to have it framed in my office at work. I think it's more powerful right now than ever - and when it says 'man', today we do of course mean persons of every gender:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
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