THE death of Ian Tomlinson who died in the G20 demos while on his way home from work is apparently already a "police brutality" cause célèbre.

What you see on the TV and the internet may be what you get – it's certainly nowadays what goes round the world in a flash – but it's not necessarily the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

It looks as if that shortly before he collapsed Mr Tomlinson was assaulted by a police officer dressed up in riot gear.

Mr Tomlinson was caught up in the controversial and probably illegal police tactic of "kettling" demonstrators – surrounding and trapping them for hours on end.

Then we had the farce of Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick resigning after holding a list of names and addresses of terrorist suspects in front of the press photographers lined up in Downing Street.

Inevitably the Press pack went for Mr Quick himself. The real question is why he was taking such detailed operational material to show the Prime Minister and Home Secretary.

Of course they had to be told that a major operation was planned – but operational details?

Since when were politicians supposed to be involved in that kind of operational policing detail?

As for the raids and arrests themselves we should again wait for the outcome before offering a definite opinion, though it's already worrying that they didn't find any material for use in any attacks which, they leaked, "could have come as early as the Easter weekend".

Gordon Brown is quoted as saying "We are dealing with a very big terrorist plot" and the Tories are already calling for more restrictions on student visas. So much for "innocent until proved guilty".

Or in the case of too many "terrorism" arrests, such as those of people driving along the M65 with aid supplies for Gaza, "innocent until quietly released without charge".

The people who are claiming that unsettling events like these prove we are now a police state are of course going over the top, and it may indeed come to light that the "very big terrorist plot" was indeed a fact.

But, to use the jargon that New Labour loves so much, what matters is the "direction of travel". And that is indeed a worry.