THE Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police says today that the public should be ‘outraged’ by attacks on his officers trying to do their job during the pandemic, and we wholeheartedly agree.

We have said time and time again in this paper that there are countless different views about the coronavirus and how it should be managed, and that in itself is no bad thing.

Even our various political and health leaders all have different views on those very subjects.

However, we have to agree that the vast, vast majority of political leaders, health experts and private citizens across the whole globe agree that this virus poses a serious danger to public health and we have to respect that danger.

That means that, while people are free to disagree about the level of danger posed and the best way to manage it, they are not free to do things which could put other people’s lives at risk, even as part of a protest.

On page 13 of today’s paper we report how a group of residents in Wantage who were fed up with lockdown went and staged a protest against the current restrictions in the Market Place.

While we would defend their right to object to the method and style of restrictions and even express that objection, we cannot condone their method of protest which could pose a real risk to other people's health.

What's more, because they were breaking lockdown rules, police officers were forced to attend and, in doing so, created an even larger gathering which could further put health at risk.

Police officers are real people, with families at home, and they are as afraid of this virus as the rest of us, so the idea of anyone assaulting an officer trying to do their job at this time – much less doing something as disgusting as spitting – is simply beyond the pale.

We defend free speech and expression at the Oxford Mail, but behaviour like this simply cannot be tolerated.