Whilst doing my normal trawl of the various news and blog sites that I use to glean information about government abuses, I came across a very small but potentially a significant item.

It was on the BBC News Open Secrets FOI blog, Comment No 17, by a chap who had overheard a comment on a phone in on the Talk Sport between Christmas and new year.

 

dear martin
Listening to Talk Sport between Christmas and new year, I believe George Galloway was standing in for someone else that day, a listener phoned in and mentioned large numbers of riot police using local football derby's to train for 'serious civil disturbances'.
It was a friend of the chap who had phoned in, a conversation he had on the phone and he mentioned challenging a police officer about their numbers and riot gear, ie. why this many officers at a local game?, where usually just a few drunks get a warning? And the police officer apparently came up with the above explanation.
NOW, who is expecting serious civil disturbances?
And, are these the same people who try and tell us, during our Christmas break, that the prison population might go up next year by some 20.000, should the economy fail?

Can you shed some light on the above?
thanks Ingo

There is no mention of a location in this blog, but I am sure that Talk Sport and/or George Galloway could shed some further light on this.  The BBC are renowned for their library and do keep all of their show tapes.