It’s a funny old world. If, as a teacher, I were to hit a teenage student I should rightly expect to be drummed out of the profession and probably sued for damages.

The same would apply in any caring profession, regardless of the provocation. How strange, then, to see TV pictures of police officers, posted behind heavy metal barricades, reaching over and indiscriminately lashing out with batons at the unprotected heads of students who were offering no apparent violence.

The next day, I was talking with an inoffensive young lad who wants to become a policeman. His choice of Christmas present? A policeman dressing-up set. When asked what this would include, he said: handcuffs, body-armour, pepper spray and a baton.

So good to have secure role models, isn’t it, Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg? Will the Government be encouraging such ambitions by offering a free tin of whitewash with each set?

Martin Roberts, Stone Close, Botley, Oxford