Red noses beware
Posted on Saturday, March 3rd, 2007 by Home Office WatchCategory: Right to Protest
Tim Ireland from Bloggerheads conjectures that red noses are probably illegal in Parliament Square, unless you’ve got permission from the police for such a flagrant display of political idealism of course.
Depressingly, he’s probably right, though it’ll be up to the police to decide if someone’s antics look to them like a protest. The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 does not actually define what a demonstration is, leaving it to the police to decide what counts as unacceptable within the exclusion zone.
So far, the police have warned, cautioned and/or arrested people under this act for displaying lapel badges, wearing t-shirts with slogans and even for carrying magazines containing political articles. Parliament Protest has more.
This just shows once again the absurd and intrusive effects of this dreadful piece of legislation, which didn’t even succeed in its primary objective - getting rid of Brian Haw. How they must hate him in the Home Secretary’s office.
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March 6th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
And it’s not even just Parliament Square - the 1km restricted zone (a stretch to use the word “vicinity”) is so large that you could be by Waterloo station and still fall foul of the law.
March 13th, 2007 at 11:51 am
I concur with your statements and hope that we as a nation kick this bunch of fascistic / communistic paranoid anal retentive members of this Government out soon.