The Observer has a short piece of media spin, ahead of what they claim will be a Government pronouncement, supposedly later this week.
Ban on protests at Parliament to be liftedGaby Hinsliff
The Observer,
Sunday March 23 2008
A controversial ban on protests outside the Houses of Parliament will be scrapped by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith this week in a symbolic victory for freedom of speech campaigners.[...]
Gaby Hinsliff is the Political Editor of The Observer, and so has presumably been briefed by a suitably well placed spin doctor.
Assuming that this anonymously briefed story is true, the Home Secretary does have the power to rescind or to amend the Statutory Instrument Order which sets out the extent of the Designated Area around Parliament Square.
under sections 132 to 138 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005.
Given how untrustworthy the current Government is, we will wait to see exactly what the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith really announces in detail, before celebrating any return to the status quo ante.
In theory, this poorly defined Designated Area could extend as far as "1 kilometre in a straight line from the nearest point in Parliament Square", but the current extent of this is not as great an area as that, but it is still far too large for the stated purpose of preventing disruption to Parliament e.g. it extends to cover the London Eye ferris wheel on the other bank of the River Thames, where no conceivable peaceful protest could possibly interfere with access of MPs to Parliament .
See Is the SOCPA Designated Area actually bigger than we have assumed ?
There are plenty of other laws which deal with any threats of violence or any actual violence, which have applied since before the SOCPA section 132 legislation came into force, so "security" has never been enhanced by this legislation.
In our Managing Protest consultation response" we suggested that
If Section 138 is not repealed, then the Designated Area should be reduced in size to cover just the pavement and highway immediately outside and across the road from the entrances and exits to Parliamentary Estate buildings.i.e. Bridge Street, Parliament Street, Old Palace Yard, Abingdon Street, Victoria Embankment (but only along the side of Portcullis House and the Norman Shaw Buildings)
The interior "public spaces" of the main Palace of Westminster and Portcullis House should not be included in such a reduced Designated Area as this has already inhibited the proper democratic working of Parliament by dissuading some members of the public from attending public sessions of Select Committee meetings and in meeting their MPs in person in Central Lobby or visiting the Public Gallery etc.
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