We condemn Richard Littlejohn's offensive column on 14 December in the Daily Mail in which he ridicules the assault inflicted on Jody McIntyre by police officers at the student protests in London ('Why is it so surprising?', G2, 16 December). In it he compared Mr McIntyre, who was born with cerebral palsy, to Andy, a character who is an object of ridicule in Little Britain. By doing that, he implied that, like Andy, Mr McIntyre is faking his disability and is not mentally sound. This is outrageous.
And to add insult to injury he argued that disabled people who get harmed at protests deserve it because they should not be there in the first place. It is the right of all human beings to exercise freedom of association and expression.
Finally, Mr Littlejohn justified police brutality against Mr McIntyre, adding to the appalling culture where police who perpetrate violence act with impunity, as we saw most recently in the tragic death of Ian Tomlinson. We call on the editor of the Daily Mail, Paul Dacre, to dismiss Mr Littlejohn, withdraw the article from the publication's website and publish an adequate apology to Mr McIntyre and all disabled people.
Clare Solomon ULU president
Rupy Kapur NUS Disabled students officer
Kanja Sesay Black students officer
Sean Rillo Raczka Chair, Birkbeck students' union
Aaron Porter NUS President
Richard Reiser Director, World of Inclusion
George Galloway Respect
Jeremy Corbyn MP Labour, Islington North
John McDonnell MP Labour, Hayes and Harlington
Deborah Coles Director, Inquest
Helen Shaw Co-director, Inquest
Mark Serwotka General secretary, PCS
Alan Dennis PCS NEC
Professor Peter Hallward Kingston University
Andrew Fisher Joint secretary, Labour Representation Committee
Sarah Evans Hampshire Labour Representation Committee
Bobby Noyes President, Southampton and South West Hampshire trades union council
Peter Millward President, Andover trades union council
Matt Tipper Regional industrial organiser, Unite
Councillor Mike Roberts Rushmoor council
Ben Symak Chair, De Montford University Labour club
John Rees Stop the War Coalition
Jack Bruce Musician (Cream)
Aruba Red Musician
• I recently heard the home secretary discussing the merits of the police perhaps now using water cannon, rubber bullets and other weapons to confront the next London protests (May moves to rule out use of water cannon, 14 December). Have I somehow travelled back in time over 20 years to when the then home secretary was debating exactly the same thing after previous serious rioting?
In the 1980s I was a senior officer at Scotland Yard and part of a team tasked with looking at these and other devices. Having secretly borrowed from Germany a couple of water cannon to test, we soon found they were vulnerable and pointless on the narrow streets of London. Rubber bullets, on the other hand, can fill the gap between truncheons and firearms as a non-lethal response.
We also looked at a wonderful device that could rapidly fill Whitehall with disorientating foam, as well as a "subsonic warbler" that caused anyone within range to withdraw quickly, clutching their trousers, as the frequency relaxed most human sphincter muscles. Regrettably, we could not trust constables to avoid aiming at politicians with the latter, so it was abandoned, but the former, being impervious to hot air, might just work.
Peter Power
Lyndhurst, Hampshire