A Senior Muslim Police Officer has called for flag burning and 'face' covering to be made criminal offences in a bid to tackle Muslim Extremist protesters.  Thats all well and good, providing such offences are enforced.  The last such protests I witnessed on the news; there were clearly offences been committed, but no action taken against the offenders.  Undoubtedly, this was for reasons of political correctness.  We don't necessarily need more new laws, just a more robust enforcement of current laws.  Any new law would be entirely pointless if enforced as positively as, say, the public order act has been at previous such demos.  Of course, the government will perhaps oblige.  They have a track record of churning out new legislation to deal with problems, which in reality could more effectively be dealt with by existing offences - and more importantly, a more robust and effective Policing agenda in the first place.  Alas though, such a simple concept would undoubtedly be at odds with the Human Rights act and the liberal, politically correct 'right-on' thinking of many senior Police Officers.  And clearly, we are in a no win situation anyway - a more robust approach at such demos would potentially escalate into serious disorder, with the IPCC waiting in the wings. 

Surely appropriate legislation already exists within the POA to cover this.   The circumstances under wich the burning of any flag would, could and should dictate the appropriate response.