Richard Yeomans

At the end of my last tour I was given standby in the hotel near Heathrow until 1pm and the rest of the crew flew home. I decided to do my standby from my car and headed home.

It was all going well until I turned onto the M3 and then the traffic stopped. The police came roaring down the hard shoulder and then a helicopter landed. I was glad I had a TV in my car and I settled down for a long stay. After an hour, I was bored with daytime TV and I walked over to chat to a policeman. He told me it would be some time because it had gone fatal. I suggested that as the fella was dead they should drag the vehicles to the side of the road and let everyone get moving. He called me a heartless prick. I lashed out and said, Im going to take your number. He didnt seem as shocked as I would have like. Then he said he was going to search me under section 14 of the anti-terrorism act. I was happy to do that as I had nothing, not a thing, on me, it was all in the car. The hapless copper then said he was going to search my car. I suggested that he couldnt do that legally. He then just said, piss off and I did happily. It was a jolly pleasant way to spend 20 minutes and soon after I was on my way down the M3.

What amazed me was the way the police use anti-terrorism law as field punishment No 1. Why can a policeman use this hateful law without and probable cause. Its a mad world we live in.