You're Under Arrest......

And so.... Today I was apprehended by Brussel's finest.

Walking in to my club this afternoon, I found the whole district sealed off by riot police. This is, of course, nothing new in this part of Brussels; if even the 3rd Junior secretary for irrelevant affairs from Monaco drives the 50 metres from his hotel to the European Commission for a cup of coffee, entire roads are closed down for hours.

But today was a bit different. Today, the Communists were revolting.

Well, some may say that there is nothing new in that, and who am I to disagree? But it is unusual to see the police deploy in such numbers, and carrying gas masks - that I never saw before. And so my interest was aroused.

The mood was generally good. The Greeks were there, protesting against Austerity measures -which means that they are upset that they can no longer retire on full pay at the age of 50 at other country's taxpayer's expense. Lazy bastards.

I took lots of photos.

All was going well until I took a photo at Maelbeek Metro station. Then the riot police moved in. Then there developed a fiasco that only I could create.

The police, who by the way were politeness personified, demanded to see the photo I had taken - who am I to disagree with a couple of guys wielding batons? The problem is, I had taken the photo on my infamous Smartphone, which I have some issues with. 30 minutes later, after much fussing and calling in assistance from others, we eventually got the picture open. No offence was committed.

There then then followed an interesting conversation. I enquired as to why there was such a massive police presence. I was informed that it is "because the far-left are much more violent than the far-right....". I wonder if the Metropolitan Police, or indeed any British police force, would dare to admit to that?