Parliament Protest

The Sunday Times has a front page story by the usually well informed / well leaked to David Cracknell:

The Sunday Times June 24, 2007 Brown to allow Iraq protests David Cracknell Political Editor

GORDON BROWN is to make a symbolic gesture to critics of the Iraq war by allowing antiwar protesters to demonstrate and march outside parliament.

This will reverse legislation introduced by Tony Blair two years ago to restrict the rights of people to camp on Parliament Square and install banners criticising the government.

We will believe it when we see the relevant legislation repealed.

The move, one of the announcements planned for the new prime minister’s first 100 days in office, comes amid encouraging opinion polls for Brown. It will be an early sign that Brown intends to be more sympathetic to critics of the war, although it will disappoint those who have been calling for him to declare an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

The SOCPA section 132 legislation affects all protests and undefined "demonstrations" not just anti-Iraq war ones.

The restored right to protest outside parliament will be combined with plans to bolster the protection of the Palace of Westminster and key ministries and government buildings along Whitehall. The Sunday Times has seen a memo from Sir Richard Mottram, chairman of the joint intelligence committee, outlining plans to erect barriers, walls, balustrades and bollards around Parliament Square.

If these further restrict the access of the public to lobby their Members' of Parliament, and to observe Parliamentary democracy in action, then the terrorists will have won another propaganda victory.

Brown believes the right of the public to protest and demonstrate is crucial to democracy, although he is said to be aware of MPs’ concerns that previous noisy demonstrations in Parliament Square have caused an eyesore and distracted workers in nearby buildings.

One Brown ally said last night: “The legitimate right to peaceful protests, marches and rallies does not mean the right to set up permanent eyesores in the square or the right to abuse policemen and passers-by.”

[...]

Brown’s decision to revisit the ban on protests follows his promise to restore the primacy of parliament and to give MPs more opportunities to hold the government to account, including allowing them the right to vote on any future military action.

The government introduced legislation in July 2005 banning unauthorised protests within half a mile of parliament. Brian Haw, the long-time protester, has been allowed to remain camped in the square as a court ruled that his protest had begun before the legislation came into force.

Yesterday, demonstrators took advantage of confusion over Haw’s legal situation by setting up a small antiwar camp in the square as police looked on.

[...]

One thing which has obviously not changed under Gordon Brown, is the briefing of the Sunday mainstream media with supposedly secret Government memos regarding national security, when it suits the political spin doctors to do so., in order to fly a political kite, without bothering to have a debate in Parliament about the issues involved.

Posted by Peaceful Demonstrator at 12:16 AM | Permalink

The Cabinet Office and Downing Street are not public areas, but this story is relevant to the identical SOCPA section 128 perimeters around the Palace of Westminster and Portcullis House Protected Sites, which used to have public areas until 1st June.

The Sunday Express carries this story, which the Press Association and other media have pocked up / copied.

The Sunday Express
COUPLE 'BYPASS PM'S SECURITY
' Sunday June 10,2007

Two intruders were able to walk into Downing Street - bypassing the wrought-iron security gates installed to protect the Prime Minister from bombers, it has emerged.

Obadiah Marius and his girlfriend strolled into the street after wandering through a neighbouring Whitehall building unchallenged, a No 10 spokesman confirmed.

The incident occurred on Monday afternoon when Marius, 44, and his partner walked into 70 Whitehall, which houses the Cabinet Office, off the street.

How did these two get past the supposedly always manned security desk at the entrance to 70 Whitehall ?

Unchecked, the pair found themselves at the rear of the building which backs on to Downing Street.

The Designated / Protected Site boundary covers Downing Street roadway and pavements and the north side of the road i.e. the Cabinet Office and Numbers 9, 10. 11 and 12 Downing Street.

The route allowed them to circumnavigate the gates installed by Margaret Thatcher to thwart terrorists amid the IRA bombing campaign in the 1980s and they were then arrested under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act.

There are no warning signs around the perimeter of the Cabinet Office building at 70 Whitehall.

Marius, 44, appeared in court on Thursday but his girlfriend, identified only as Miss Smith, was released without charge.

"I got into an area I should never have been allowed into," Marius told the Sunday Express.

"It really is a disgrace. I think they are going to drop the charges."

[...]

Presumably, Obadiah Marius will be able to claim ignorance, under
the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005
Section 128 subsection (4):

(4) It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under this section to prove that he did not know, and had no reasonable cause to suspect, that the site in relation to which the offence is alleged to have been committed was a designated site.

However, he has presumably suffered the indignities of an arrest, fingerprinting, DNA sampling, photography etc, all of which will be retained for ever, or at least until his 100th birthday.

Posted by Peaceful Demonstrator at 1:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Brian Haw is today, 2nd June 2007, currently celebrating his 6th year of continuous peace protest, day and night, in Parliament Square.

Posted by Peaceful Demonstrator at 1:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With no publicity or public consultation, or any interest from the mainstream media, and no debate or scrutiny from Members of Parliament, the access of members of the General Public to meet with and lobby and observe their elected Members of Parliament and the unelected Lords has been further reduced as of 1st June 2007.

See our previous blog entry:- Palace of Westminster and Portcullis House now Designated under SOCPA Section 128 - even the previously public areas !

Some perimeter warning signs have now appeared around some of the Designated parts of the Parliamentary Estate. They say:

Trespass on this Site
is a criminal offence.

This is a protected site
under Section 128
of the Serious Organised Crime
and Police Act 2005.

At the Victoria Embankment end of Derby Gate:

N.B. there are no such signs visible at the glass fronted public entrance and lobby to the Committee Rooms in Portcullis House.

At the base of "Big Ben" St. Stephen's Clock Tower on Bridge Street (which has been scaled by demonstrators in the past):

The vast array of black painted spiky railings, black painted concrete barriers, black CCTV surveillance camera "death star" mountings and now these "Protected Site" signs, all just show how paranoid and unfriendly and out of touch with the electorate, Parliament has now become. No wonder politicians are held in such increasing contempt by the public.

Note that Section 128 Offence of trespassing on designated site of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 was amended by Section 12 Trespassing etc. on nuclear sites of the Terrorism Act 2006, which, for some unfathomable reason, decided to replace the word "designated" with "protected" in the text of the clauses (but not in the sub-title of Section 128). This now lumps together military bases , military nuclear, civil nuclear and other designated sites into the category of Protected Sites.

Protected against what, exactly ? Not against terrorists, since many other laws would already apply. Presumably the protection is against otherwise peaceful demonstrators, with the collateral damage side effect, of further restricting the rights of the general public, even when they are not demonstrating or protesting peacefully.

These signs are slightly different to the ones used at the Horseguards end of Downing Street (none visible at the Whitehall end) which include a graphic:

The other Section128 Protected Sites within the Section 132 Designated Area include:

• The headquarters of the Security Service MI5 at 11 Millbank, which does not display any signs at present

• The Ministry of Defence has applied to Westminster Council for planning permission for:

  07/03601/LBC Old War Office Whitehall London SW1A 2EU 28/03/2007 Display of 16 non-illuminated signs measuring 0.21m x 0.3m and 0.3m x 0.42m on all frontages at ground floor level.

  However, we have not checked to see if these are on display yet.

• Similarly we would welcome reports and / or photos of any such signs around the Ministry of Defence Main Building (none are visible along the southern Richmond Passage side of the buildings.
  

Since there is a statutory "I didn't know it was a protected site, honest" defence in Section 128: and there was a promise by a Government Minster during the debate in Parliament that all such perimeters designated under Section 128 would be adequately sign posted, we expect that some more signs will appear in the near future.

Posted by Peaceful Demonstrator at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)