This is England

British Riot Police

It would seem the Egypt's spirit of rebellion is fast spreading across the world with many protests beginning world-wide, including one of the largest protests in London since the start of the tuition fee debate.

The protest was formed in most part by nearly 2,000 members of the infamous anti-Islamic group, the English Defence League (EDL). This protest was then increased in scale with counter-demonstrators Unite Against Fascism (UAF) attending with a further 1,000 members.

The presence of  UAF was drowned out as nearly the entire duration of the rally was narrated with many anti-Islamic EDL chants such "No More Mosques" and "Get Muslims of our Streets". The leader of the EDL, Stephen Lennon, even made an appearance at the rally and told the press to make a point of the cultural diversity present in the EDL crowd, stating that contrary to popular belief the EDL have no racial issues only religious issues.  

EDL Leader Stephen Lennon

However, unlike Egypt, due to massive police presence the 9 hour long protest went down with relatively little incident with only 7 arrests and 19 injuries. As well as constant CCTV surveillance, the police were fully equipped in full riot gear with many on horse back, and were ordered to remain after the rally to put all protesters back onto their chosen transport to ensure dispersion, as is the norm in Britain. Due to the size of protest, authorities also made use of the state-of-the-art car registration recognition system on all roads into London to record the identities of all citizen entering and leaving London . Although effective this massive police presence cost over £800,000 ($1.2 Million).

The officer behind ensuring peace during the protest, Ch Supt Mike Colbourne was proud of the work carried out by his officers and released the following statement to the press; "The policing operation has been in the planning for weeks and the professionalism of the officers was borne out today. We were assisted by 27 forces and it's a great example of how forces can work together in difficult circumstances."

- Was such a large police force necessary for only 3,000 protesters?
- As a British resident myself, do any non-Britains feels as though the British authorities take to many liberties with the freedom of the British public?