The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

The Courier – 'I started laughing, and kept on laughing' — Olympic torch protester gets a police visit.

I was asked earlier this year at a professional gathering what change I had noticed on returning to Britain after 20 years. I answered that the police seem more interested now in what people say than in what they do. There was a polite silence as people digested this politically-incorrect observation. Yet is it really so controversial? In what possible universe can an elderly man's declaration of his intention to stand with a placard as the Olympic torch passes merit the time of two detectives to establish his precise intentions?

h/t Nourishing Obscurity