I absolutely agree with Julian Young in respect of the under-acknowledged efforts of defence practitioners at the time of the riot arrests and courts.

Two further issues need to be aired. First, it is high time that we challenged the received wisdom that the police and courts were confronting an unprecedented outbreak of violence. This proposition withstands scarcely a moment’s serious consideration. There must be many practitioners apart from myself who remember only too vividly the poll tax riots and their aftermath.

Second, as on that occasion - and perhaps understandably - the initial management of these events by police and courts could be likened to chaos on stilts. I say this in a spirit of sympathy rather than condemnation, since a riot scenario is by definition desperately difficult to control.

To assert this is nonetheless to introduce an important corrective to what more or less instantly became, once again, the received wisdom. In the West Midlands, confusion over which accused were arriving from where, and when, was commonplace. One Sunday in Wolverhampton saw court staff, district judges and defence advocates bewildered as to which person was coming from where and why.

The crucial importance of this second point is that unless we remain vigilant, all the bad features of riot case process and courts will be foisted upon us as a desirable template, with rule of law and due process concerns swept aside as so much tedious sophistry.

Malcolm Fowler, Dennings, Tipton; Law Society Council member, Birmingham and District