Brian Haw Behind Bars
It’s taken the Government a fair while, but at long last they’ve succeeded in placing the anti-war protestor, Brian Haw, behind bars. Well, almost.
The Greater London Authority has erected a ‘security fence’ around Mr Haw’s camp in Parliament Square to supposedly prevent homeless people setting up tent on the grass. All war protestors except for Mr Haw have been removed from the site.
In addition to the fence, a spokesman for the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, claimed that, ‘Parliament Square is not a campsite and no city can tolerate a situation where people are setting up tents and urinating and defecating on one of its central squares’. So the group of protestors are now apparently a health and safety hazard too.
Last May, Scotland Yard wasted a total of £111,000 of taxpayer’s money on an overnight raid to remove the majority of the protest placards which adorned his camp in Parliament Square – all under the guise of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005.
It seems the powers that be really are scrapping the bottom of the barrel for excuses and reasons to prevent Mr Haw and his associates from publicly disagreeing with their policies. I am not anti-war myself, but I do believe Mr Haw and others like him have a legitimate right to stage a public protest against something with which they do not agree.
Your Comments:
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Those people who said those sorts of law would lead to the arbitrary abuse of power by governments… how wrong they were!
Oh wait…
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Sadly, it was obvious at the time that those powers were unnecessary and would be open to abuse. This just goes to prove that we were right.
