Muammar Al Khadafi

Liberal Democrat councillor and deputy mayor Judith Best has been arrested in connection with a savage attack which left a man requiring hospital treatment and needing 27 stitches.

The assault, which took place in the early hours of the morning, saw 41 year old Neil Potter of Streatham with a broken jaw and broken ribs, as well as needing multiple stitches.

Police attended the scene of the assault, Madeira Road, in the early hours of the morning and Mr Potter was taken to hospital by ambulance.

After receiving treatment for his immediate injuries, including 27 stitches, the following day he had surgery on his jaw.

His father, Steve Potter, has since said that his son would need to eat soft food for several months, and that he is "lucky to be alive"

Details of events are still uncertain, but Judith Best attended a police station shortly after the attack where she was arrested for actual bodily harm with conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm.

She has been bailed until September.

Judith Best, age 51, is Liberal Democrat councillor for the Streatham Wells ward, and also deputy mayor of Lambeth.

Councillor Best's son, Scott Richards, was also arrested after a police chase and remains in custody charged with grievous bodily harm.

Police say that they are also seeking other people in connection with the incident and have appealed for anyone with information to contact Crimestoppers or Lambeth Police.

Still, we bought a ticket for the next train, paid, and waited.

Then, one discovers why the police are in attendance.

Next announcement says 40 people must leave before the train was moving.
Note that the ticket office was still selling tickets for this train as everything unfolded, in the full knowledge nobody would be allowed to board the train, and would be ordered off by police if they did. The ticket office closed at some point during the drama.

One saw a woman threatened with a section 5 public order arrest for daring to complain, and spoke to a number of other passengers who said that they had experienced or seen the same.

Still, objections made no difference, the police hounded numerous paying customers off the train. Immediately as the train departed it was then announced that there was no extra train being supplied, it was already full, wait for 2 hours.


By this time, of course, the station manager had vanished, leaving a lot of unhappy punters. Perhaps wisely, the police turned a blind eye to many of the festival goers smoking cannabis whilst waiting.

So there we were, left waiting 2 hours for a train, no chance of an immediate refund so we could get a taxi, and no taxi paid for by the rail company as is the norm if a delay will be huge.

Ticket prices go up and up, standards of service get lower and lower. Aren't our privatised railways, protected by the police to ensure that they do not have to deliver on what you paid for, and indeed that they can continue selling it to other poor mugs, just great?

Oh, and the train we finally boarded after a huge delay - just as overcrowded as the last we were forced to leave as the photos prove. Apparently it wasn't a safety issue there then.

*I had intended to write up a full report for SWN on the Swindon hustings, but, in light of arriving late and missing a fair chunk, including Nicks opening speech, I believe it would be fairer to pass the buck and let someone else do it. It would be fair to neither candidate for the report to come from someone who missed 45 minutes of the nights proceedings.