Why I'd join the nutty protester in Parliament Square

Why I'd join the nutty protester in Parliament Square

By Tom Utley

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Like most Londoners, I have had plenty of cause over the years to curse political demonstrators, who descend in their thousands on the capitalto bring their protests to Parliament.

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Nothing is more maddening than tobe stuck in the traffic behind an endless stream of marchers -particularly when one doesn't agree with a word that they are chanting.

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Brian Haw is a pain in the neck for a different reason. He is the loneeccentric who has kept a 24-hour vigil in Parliament Square, oppositethe gates of the Commons, for the past four years. I cannot rememberwhat exactly it was that first prompted him to leave Redditch in Worcestershire, where he was a carpenter, to set up camp at Westminster. These days, he concentrates on protesting against the war in Iraq, whichbegan long after he started demonstrating. His favourite chant is "45 minutes to Mr B-Liar", which he bellows, allday long, through a megaphone. He doesn't hold up the traffic. But his one-man shanty town of placards is an eyesore, scarring the finesttourist attraction in the capital.

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It was because Mr Haw was such a pain that MPs made very little fuss when David Blunkett, in his days as Home Secretary, sneaked a clauseinto his Serious Organised Crime and Police Act, which comes into fullforce on 1 August .

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The new law gives ministers the power to draw up anexclusion zone, anywhere within a kilometre of Parliament Square, inwhich demonstrators are to be banned from protesting without permissionfrom the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.

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True, the commissioner is obliged by the Act to authorise anydemonstration of which he has been given at least six days' notice,where that is "reasonably practicable", or 24 hours' where it is not. But, crucially, he has the power to impose conditions on the demo. Hecan say, for example, that it should last for no longer than half an hour. He can lay down a maximum number of demonstrators, or ban the useof megaphones.

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The purpose of this new law, we were told when it was going throughParliament, was purely and simply to get rid of the irritating Mr Haw. Everything else had been tried. Westminster council had sought aninjunction to evict him - but this was overruled by a judge, on thegrounds that Mr Haw was not causing an obstruction.

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In May last year, the Commons Procedure Committee scoured the statutebook in the hope of finding some long-forgotten law, under which the nutty protester could be forced to pack up his placards and go home toWorcestershire. But no luck. Mr Haw was not contravening the ancient statute that guarantees MPs safe passage through the streets ofWestminster, nor any other law.

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He was just a bloody nuisance, actingperfectly within his rights. But if the purpose of Clause 134 of the new Act was only to get rid of Mr Haw, its effect will be very different.

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This week, the new Home Secretary, the Rt. Hon. Charles Clarke, exercised to the full his new power to set anexclusion zone around the Commons.

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Not content with forcing Mr Haw outof Parliament Square, he has banned all spontaneous demonstrationswithin half a mile of the Palace of Westminster. That means that if you or I should take it into our heads to stand onthe other side of the Thames from the Commons, and announce to thetourists queuing for the London Eye that we disapprove of closinggrammar schools, the police will be entitled to arrest us (unless, ofcourse, we have given six days' notice of our intention to the Metcommissioner). This is not only a mad law, but an extremely bad one. Iam not saying that the police would actually be barmy enough to arrestyou or me, in the circumstances that I have just described. But the veryfact that they would be entitled to do so is an outrage.

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The right to demonstrate peacefully, without the permission of the Government or its agents, is an absolutely fundamental part of our democracy.

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Elections and opinion polls may measure the numbers of peoplewho support a particular party or policy. But only demonstrations andprotest marches can show the strength with which people hold theirconvictions. It is one thing to stroll round the corner on election day and put across on a ballot paper. We can all do that, whether or not we care verystrongly which candidate should win. But to join a protest march onParliament requires vastly more time and commitment, and shows astrength of feeling that no ballot can.

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The actual numbers of people who supported the Countryside Alliance in its campaign to stop the ban on foxhunting were not all that enormous, as a proportion of the electorate. But the fact that so many of themwere prepared to go to the trouble of organising coach trips to Westminster from Aberdeen and Penzance, and marching all the way toLondon from Wales and Yorkshire, showed the sheer passion with whichthey held their views.

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All right, the campaign failed. But there were many MPs representing urban constituencies who simply didn't realise how strongly people felt,before the marchers arrived in Parliament Square. At least the marchersmade them think - and that can only be good for an MP.

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Politicians are insulated quite enough, as it is, from the people whomthey represent. They are insulated by their index-linked pensions, theirgenerous expenses and secretarial allowances, by the concrete tank-trapsoutside the Commons and the cheap beer inside.

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This new Act, with its powers to restrict the numbers and noise of demonstrators, can only cutthem off further. I wonder what the young, idealistic Tony Blair would have thought if somebody had told him in his student days, as he strummed his guitar and campaigned against apartheid and the Bomb, that one day he wouldrestrict the freedom of British subjects to demonstrate. What would hehave thought, come to that, if he had been told that he would introducehouse arrest, restrict the right to trial by jury and try to force all British subjects to carry identity cards?

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Mr Haw may be a nuisance and a pain. But suddenly I feel the urge to join him in Parliament Square. Who is up for a mass demonstration, supporting the freedom to demonstrate?