I know it's Colbert's shtick and I never really got into it, but still...

"I have friends who live and work in London. They said "don't worry,we're very sensible people."

What's sensible for people in London might not be sensible for people in Salford. Or Boston. Or Wolverhampton. London, or the South-East in general, is as representative of the UK as the East/West Coast is of the US.

The hinterland has been drained at the expense of the center, on both a global and a national scale. If you live and work in the City of London, things might look quite ok, and whatever issues there are only need some reforms to no longer be an issue. But if your factory, the factory that provided jobs for the people in your home town, closed down ten, twenty years ago and now the best you can get is zero-hour contracts, then no, things are not ok.

People up top keep telling you that the economy is growing, that everyone's gonna be better off, that it's ok for multinational corporations and rich individuals to optimise their taxes, while they cut your welfare. Banks get a bailout, you get to pay the bedroom tax.

So no, your sensible friends, if they exist, live in a different universe than many of their countrymen. That's the disconnect we've been talking about.

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"The British economy is tanking. The pound has plunged to its lowest level since 1985... The Dow lost 611 points."

Again, so what? If the economy is growing and it has no effect on you, why should you give a jar of cold piss about the value of the pound or the stock exchange? Arguably, a drop in the exchange rate of the pound makes it easier for you to export your goods and raises the prices for imports, thereby encouraging you to produce the shit yourself. The UK does have a sovereign currency, unlike the Spanish, the Greeks, the Portuguese or the Italians who have to suffer internal devaluations, because Wolfgang Schäuble says so.

"Equity losses over $2 trillion"

Why should that matter? QE has pushed up stock prices beyond any resonable level, so what meaning do these book values hold? Not to mention that a lot of people made a shitload of money by shorting these stocks, including George Soros against Deutsche.

"There'll be no more money"

QE never trickled down anyway, makes no difference. Corbyn's people call their version "QE for the People" and "Green QE" for a reason: the previous version was only meant to prop up banks and stock values.

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On a more general note, the hatred, the racism, the xenophobia... in most cases, it's a pressure valve. You leash out against someone else, you need someone to blame. The narrative is that we're living in a meritocracy, which makes it your fault that you didn't inherit an investment portfolio. So you start blaming yourself. You're a fuck-up. You worked hard and not only didn't climb the ladder, you actually went down. There's depression for ya. Guess what happens if someone, a person of perceived authority, then comes along and tells you it's not your fault, it's the fault of the immigrants. That narrative is very appealing if history is any indication. Even the supposedly most prosperous country in the EU, Germany, has the very same issue in the eastern parts, where there is no hope for a meaningful job.

People need work, meaningful work. Wanna guess how many of those "xenophobes" would be out in the street protesting against immigrants if they had a meaningful job with decent pay? Not to many would be my guess.

So the likes of Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson are providing the narrative. But the lack of social cohesion is a result of market fundamentalism, of Thatcherism, of Third Way social-democrats leaving the lower half of the income distribution to the wolves. You can't exclude large swaths of the population from the benefits of increased productivity, etc. Social dividend, they called it. It's what keeps the torches and pitchforks locked away in the barn.

The guy drove to the site. He had not been drinking whilst on the site. The officer said he smelled of Alcohol there are the grounds for reasonable suspicion. I don't believe they had another round of reasonable suspicion at the station, they'd just follow procedure. It's more likely that they were simply to busy, you could see they were short staffed at the protest.

You are assuming the police officer made it up, however it would be a seriously stupid plan as if the guy had taken the test and it had come back negative, well the plan doesn't really go anywhere does it?

No the police don't have the right to do what, but they do have the power to right to detain given reasonable suspicion that is what happened here.

You wrong on the right to refuse the "road side" test, unless you have a genuine reason not to do the test like a medical condition (being an arsehole doesn't count) you are obligated to take the test given reasonable suspicion.

Unless there are some unusual circumstances the police will arrest take you back to the station and then use the machine back at the station (unlikely to be a blood test but a lot more sophisticated breath testing machine) to get an accurate reading, if it measures over the limit you will then be prosecuted, if not you won't.

Now your all for innocent till proven guilty, but you soon assumed the police guy was guilty of, well power abuse? Which you can't do as the camera doesn't have smellovision.

I suspect it more to do with you not liking police/authority, and the police man was acting arsy.

It's not surprising when they have to put up with the crap and abuse they have to, that sometimes they behave this way especially at a protest, that's just being human. Apparently he's a Salford Officer as well I don't envy him one bit policing that shole.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/salford-anti-fracking-protester-sue-greater-6676499

"Dr Steven Peers, who was filming the demonstration at Barton Moss in Salford, was arrested for refusing a breath test after the policeman accused him of driving to the site drunk.

He was later charged but the case fell apart at court when prosecutors offered no evidence."

ducks' quacks echo.