It is difficult to imagine quite what the link might be between the recent London riots and clinical waste.

Pulse is reporting that out-of-hours GPs and their deputising services were forced to reduce home visits and switch to using their own unmarked cars to avoid being targeted by rioters last night, as the wave of disturbances swept across London. Presently, their cars are considered to look a little too much like police cars and thus be a target for rioters.

Areas of Ealing, the location of Blenkharn Environmental, have been badly affected but not so much as areas in north and south London. Charlton House Medical Centre on Tottenham High Road, close to where the violence first escalated on Saturday night, said it had reverted to emergency appointments only since the weekend, with two of its three GPs still working. The surgery said its clinical waste bin had also been taken from outside the premises.

I guess that bin had been taken not for its contents, but simply because it was accessible, mobile and flammable. So now, the question must be asked, why was it accessible in the first place?