Guardian + Co: Podcast: Policing protests + March26 articles

How are the Metropolitan police preparing for this weekend's mass demonstrations against public spending cuts? Hugh Muir investigates

- Met's assistant commissioner, Lynne Owens
- Chair of the Met Police Federation, Peter Smyth
- Green party London assembly member Jenny Jones
- Liberty's legal director, James Welch
- Val Swain from Fit Watch
- Vikram Dodd, the Guardian's crime correspondent

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/audio/2011/mar/22/guardian-focus-podcast-policing-protests

Plus today's M26 articles following press briefings from the police and TUC:

Police issue warning on mass union protest
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1215c222-548b-11e0-979a-00144feab49a.html#axzz1HMFURJRJ
(with apparent quote from Brendan Barber TUC Gen sec calling on protesters to avoid feeder marches)

Violence warning as unions plan mass march
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/03/22/uk-britain-unions-protest-idUKTRE72L3L920110322

Police put firms on riot alert for TUC anti-cuts march by 250,000
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23934441-police-put-firms-on-riot-alert-for-tuc-anti-cuts-march-by-250000.do

March against a return to Thatcher Britain, says Brendan Barberhttp://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/2011/03/22/march-against-a-return-to-thatcher-britain-says-brendan-barber-115875-23006796/

And yesterday's coverage of the Met Police 'new tactics'

Scotland Yard: New crowd control tactics 'have not been trialled'
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23933792-scotland-yard-new-crowd-control-tactics-have-not-been-trialled.do

Met 'ready' ahead of London TUC cuts rally
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-12803917

Giving evidence to the joint parliamentary committee on human rights earlier this month, she went on: "We are also trialling a different approach on gathering intelligence and arrests connected to the containment.
"One of the issues with containment has been that sometimes it has gone on longer than we would think necessary in the future, on the basis that we wanted to arrest some people.
"We are trying to speed up the process so that those who have not been engaged in criminal activity can leave very quickly."