Next time you see someone with big floppy shoes and a red nose, you could be looking at an undercover anti-terrorism cop.

Footage has emerged showing an undercover police officer tasked with monitoring so-called “domestic extremists” running around Leeds city centre dressed as a clown.

The video of Lynn Watson, who lived as an environmental activist in Leeds for five years, shows her wiggling her bottom outside an MP’s office, playing cricket with a feather duster and chanting “tickle the tree”.

Clearly an agente provocatrice. No doubt the uniforms—the blue ones, I mean—were all set to pounce if a single tree was harassed.

The article continues, with splendid British understatement:

The images from the good-natured anti-war protest are likely to further undermine claims by police chiefs that their multimillion-pound operation to deploy spies against activists has been proportionate.

The intrepid police officer who joined the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army took part in their activities to the point, I would argue, of attempted entrapment:

She is…seen helping to set up what activists refer to as a “clown checkpoint” in the middle of the road. The protest appeared to attract only a small presence of uniformed police officers, some of whom can be seen apparently smirking at the antics.

Confronting the camera, Watson says: “We are checking for clowns, we need more clowns in this country - more clowns.”

Newflash for Watson and her colleagues in the National Public Order Intelligence Unit: you already have quite enough of them.

[H/t]