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Deploying the military to police civilians is not how our liberal democracy works

The principles the police have been operating on are much better than enforcement -  Anadolu
The principles the police have been operating on are much better than enforcement - Anadolu

The suggestion that the Government may draft in the military to assist the police in enforcing Covid-19 restrictions is an alarming one.

Ever since the so-called Peterloo Massacre of 1819, when militia on horses were deployed to try and control a crowd of people who had gathered to demand the reform of parliamentary representation and a number of people were killed, there has always been a determination to keep the military away from actively policing the public in Great Britain.

The exception was obviously in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, between 1969 and 2007, but that time notwithstanding, involving the military in day-to-day policing is a highly contentious idea.

The police have very good mutual aid arrangements, whereby when one police force comes under huge pressure they borrow manpower from another police force. If even that situation becomes overwhelming, it is perfectly reasonable for the home secretary to ask the defence secretary, under a process known as military aid to the civil authorities, to request the military to assist.

But the sort of tasks they are usually asked, and would wish, to do are those unarmed activities that are well away from direct public interface - marshalling traffic, for example - which releases trained police manpower to deal face-to-face with the public.

That differentiation between face-to-face interaction and background tasks is an important principle. Breaking it is not how a liberal democracy such as ours operates.

We are getting quite a long way towards breaking our liberal principles when we're encouraging our neighbours to snitch on their neighbours, of course. I wouldn't want to see the military involved in that in any way, shape or form - and actually, most senior policemen don't want to be involved in that way either.

Separately, but related to this issue, is the fact that the military has in fact been so pared down in recent years that it simply does not have the numeric manpower to be able to assist the police in this way.

When a government is not spending enough on defence, it runs down the nation's capability to react to a range of situations - in this case the ability to react to the domestic circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic.

What the current situation calls for is for the Government to be as clear as it can in communicating what the threat to the public is, and to then put in place sensible measures that are well understood and that people can voluntarily comply with.

The principles the police have been operating on - to explain, encourage and engage - are much better than enforcement, and this approach should continue.

As public servants, the British military will do whatever the government of the day requires us to do. But we are the nation's trained manpower of last resource. The fact that we are the ultimate - last - resource, is in this instance crucial.