Whoops, we did get a bit of rioting last night after all. Did I jinx it?!
Yes, the prayers of the rolling news execs were answered. The BBC reckon about five hundred hundred people got violent in Trafalgar Square, and compiled some nice dramatic footage of the place lit up by fires. This is the part where the numbers go the opposite way, of course - if Sky News reckon there were only tens of thousands of people out opposing government policy, they'll cheerfully insist that several hundred thousand were involved in the disgraceful scenes of rioting that brought the capital to a standstill and tarnished the names of the vile opposition Labour politicians who no doubt encouraged it all with their pinko lefty speeches. Oh, and Channel 4, who thought there were half a million people out marching against the government, will probably put the violence down to three drunk men who probably weren't from around here anyway.
If we go with the rather more believable BBC figures on it all, we've got 500 people causing trouble in a crowd of 250,000. So the media will of course dedicate 90% of the coverage to what amounts to 0.2% of the protesters. It's always the vocal minority who spoil the fun for everyone else, isn't it? Although they're going to have to be pretty fucking vocal, given what a tiny minority they are. Not to worry, they've got all of the media's attention now - the actual protests be damned.
