SOCPA and protesting around Parliament: some good news
Right here (page 7):
Managing Protest around Parliament: The Government proposes the repeal of sections 132-138 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. Repeal of these sections will remove the requirement to give notice of demonstrations in the designated area around Parliament. It will also remove the offence for such demonstrations to be held without the authorisation of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner;
According to the Analysis of Consultations Managing Protest around Parliament…
The Government received 512 responses during the 12 week consultation period. Representations were received from 25 campaign groups, from six MPs and two Peers, from a number of other interested stakeholders including the Metropolitan Police Service,the Greater London Authority,Westminster City Council and the Law Society of Scotland. However, most responses – over 90 percent – were received from members of the public.
The vast majority of responses – over 95 percent – either explicitly or implicitly called for the straight repeal of sections 132 to 138 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCAP), rejecting arguments that a distinct framework for managing protest around Parliament could be justified on security grounds, or on grounds that the business of Parliament needed special protection, or by a need to safeguard wider public enjoyment of the space.
We’ll pass over the fact they couldn’t even get the acronym of their own bloody law right.
Posted on March 25th, 2008 at 4:58pm under Affronts to democracy, Civil liberties
If we lived closer together you and I would be in the pub right now. Top result. I feel proud as punch to be one of the 512.
So you bloody should be, mate. Let’s have it one more time.
Oh, you.
OK, let’s save some time and get straight to this part;
You’re my besht mate, you are! (*hic*)
Me and you against the world, kidder.
Solidarity, brutha!
(vomits)
Repealing a law AND getting acronyms right, come on be fair, its a hell of a lot to ask of this government. They’ve only been doing it 11 odd years.
Good job folks!
Great result chaps.
I’m sure the terrifying photo at 5:15 in Tim’s submission was the deciding factor.
You’re only jealous, Teabag. Raw machismo doesn’t grow on trees, mate.
[...] Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 that made it difficult to protest freely around parliament. Justin has more on this. And a deserved mention to Tim Ireland who’s been campaigning tirelessly on [...]
I’m surprised you didn’t notice/mention the open-ended threat of new restrictions:
“In moving to repeal sections 132-138 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act, the Government nonetheless takes seriously the need to ensure that the operation of Parliament is safeguarded. For many years this principle has been given expression in sessional orders which provided the Metropolitan Police with clarity on the House’s expectations on the Commissioner. [...] The Government believes that Parliament itself is well placed to contribute to proper consideration of what needs to be secured in order to ensure that Members are able freely and without hindrance to discharge their roles and responsibilities. [...] The Government therefore invites the views of Parliament on whether additional provision is needed for the purpose of keeping passages leading to the House free and open while the House is sitting, or to ensure that, for example, excessive noise is not used to disrupt the workings of Parliament.”
http://www.justice.gov.uk/docs/constitutional-renewal-white-paper.pdf