I was not asked to ‘back off’ by police (From Worcester News)

I was not asked to ‘back off’ by police

9:00am Wednesday 13th October 2010 in Read

Sir – Last Friday you carried an article by David Paine concerning a discussion I had with some anti-hunting protestors outside the Conservative party conference in Birmingham.

The story fairly reflected what was the usual passionate argument between opposing views, where there’s little chance of either side changing the others’ beliefs.

Unfortunately, the headline – Police asked Tory chief to “back off” – will have misled your readers as it is completely untrue.

The police did not ask me to do anything. Two officers observed the encounter from 10 yards away, but did not move a muscle towards us.

At one point, the protester accused me of harassing her and invited the police to intervene. On leaving, I asked the officers what constituted harassment and one commented: “Not what you were doing”.

I welcome debate and understand that at times it may be heated. It is a different thing to imagine that the police should feel it necessary to intervene at such times and I regret that you led people to believe that they did so on this occasion.

Coun Ken Pollock, Chairman, West Worcestershire Conservative Association