AN arrest toll of just 12 tells its own story.

With 2,000 EDL supporters packing Blackburn town centre, and another 500 opposition demonstrators nearby, the day had the potential to turn into an unmitigated disaster.

The fact that it didn’t owes virtually everything to the operation put in place by the police and its council and community partners.

The sheer size of the police response – the biggest seen in Lancashire for decades – was in itself a deterrent, but the range of segregation measures to stop the two groups coming together was equally pivotal.

And deft handling by officers on the day, particularly the decision not to step in when the EDL started brawling among themselves, also played a big part. The only downside of the operation is the cost.

Jack Straw estimates the burden on taxpayers will add up to around £1 million.

Whatever the cost turns out to be, it was worth it to protect the town’s citizens, its property and, equally important, its reputation for avoiding the kind of extreme racially-fuelled violence seen in other northern towns and cities in the past 15 years.

It’s just a shame that this financial blow, along with the lost takings in town centre shops, can’t be charged back to the EDL.

As for the so-called protest, the EDL continued to prove that it is an organisation bereft of any intelligence, and whose only aim is to peddle odious racist nonsense.

All true democrats believe in the right to protest, but when the message is nothing more than one of pure hatred it makes you question whether democracy is, in the case of groups like the EDL, making a fool of freedom.