Two hundred years ago, the British government responded to protests by riding them down with cavalry.
(The relevant bit is at 1:10, and shows a group of horsemen charging the crowd).
What has changed is that the government can't lie about it, or pretend it didn't happen. Though oddly, that message doesn't seem to have gotten through to the UK police, who are still in full denial mode about charging down schoolkids with mounted police, despite clear evidence to the contrary. But just as they're stuck in a mindset which equates protest with sedition, they also seem to be stuck in a mindset where things are true just because they say they are, because the word of the powerful cannot be challenged by the powerless. That may have been true in the Middle Ages, but its certainly not true now.
