STEPPING up their protest at the Budget's blows to their industry, truckers set out to paralyse the centres of at least eight big towns and cities today, just as they did with London a fortnight ago in their protest at soaring fuel and road taxes.

It is, of course, every citizen's right to demonstrate - legally.

And, faced by the hauliers' ire and action, the government may have painted itself into a corner as the Tories did with the poll-tax - albeit on a lesser scale.

But the truckers need to steer their campaign carefully.

The government won't be driven to a sharp U-turn without the general public's weight behind this protest - and public support for the lorry drivers will evaporate if their demonstrations start to resemble the lawless blockades with which French truckers have held their government and country to ransom.

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