It is not only the Home Secretary who was at fault in allowing the arrest of Damian Green, the shadow immigration minister, on trumped up allegations that he published leaks which allegedly (and nonsensically) damaged national security.

Her actions (or inactions) were bad enough, but the speaker of the Commons, Michael Martin, is probably even more culpable for allowing the police to search Green's Commons office without a warrant.

Then, displaying precious little gallantry, the speaker attempted to blame the whole affair on the relatively new sergent-at-arms Jill Pay. These people are handsomely paid – too handsomely, some would say – by us to defend our rights, not to allow the police to trample all over us.

But unfashionably, I do have sympathy for the police, who are coming under intense attack over the handling of the G20 protest.

What happened to those people who smashed their way into the Royal Bank of Scotland with what appeared to be a battering ram? You don't hear much about them. So to suggest that this was a peaceful campaign worked up into a frenzy by the police is very wide of the mark indeed.

One is perhaps compelled to the conclusion that some of the protesters were taunting the police so much that they were even hoping for a violent reaction, while their friends with cameras conveniently stood close by.