You know things are bad when you turn round in a demonstration and the revolting hooded up hoodlum next to you is a policeman. On Thursday (6th) thousands of Greek police, fire-fighters and coast guards took to the streets of central Athens to rally against another round of imminent wage cuts.

The uniformed protesters carried banners inscribed with "Mercy, stop the cuts" and "We can't take it any more". They weren't allowed to protest peacefully however, as another faction of police (who clearly hadn't got the memo) blocked their way. Fighting broke out between rioting police and the riot police, the best of the blue-on-blue action came as police were prevented from leaving a depot in Athens and travelling to Thessaloniki to prepare for the upcoming weekend's demonstrations.

The Nea Democratia (New Democracy) party which leads the three headed beast coalition government had, during its pre-election campaign, vowed not to reduce the payrolls of policemen, firefighters, coast guard officers, academics and judges. Oops.