No, this isn't one of those dubious Special Branch Mayday briefings. It's the new Metropolitan Police Firearms and Public Order training school in Gravesend, Kent, which opened today.

The training school cost £55 million quid and was built under a PFI contract. Met Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens gushed: "It is a site dedicated to the pursuit of excellence."

The cops are busy training to meet a variety of scenarios that they expect to meet on Britain's mean streets. The fully equipped "Riot City" features all mod-cons, including a life-size aircraft mock-up.

During one highly realistic exercise for the cameras, a plainclothes cop lobbed a Molotov cocktail at the riot squad, setting one rozzer's trouser leg on fire. The exercise had to be hastily abandoned while the blaze was put out. Never mind, they'll have got it right by Mayday.