December 13, 2005
Well, colour me ridiculously overdone
A young woman recites 97 names of the UK's Iraq war dead by the Cenotaph memorial, gets arrested and charged and is later found guilty of breaking a new law stopping unauthorised protests within half a mile of Parliament. No great surprise there because, after all, the did break the law albeit one that I think is particularly bad.
Then along came a Lord who, for some inexplicable reason, decided to misrepresent our concerns:
"The idea that we take a measure, which is a public order measure, designed to protect our Parliament building, as depriving us of freedom of speech is ridiculously overdone.Yes, that's right my Lord, everyone who thinks this law is bad thinks that it takes away all of our rights to free speech. The legislation, and everyone is clear on this, prevents people expressing themselves in a manner acceptable in most places across the country within a certain area around of the Houses of Parliament and they (we) complain and protest about it. There is no doubt that it is a free speech issue but it is not one depriving us of freedom of speech in its totality and no one is suggesting that it is. They protest the issue within a context my Lord, which you have chosen to ignore.
After such a brazen misrepresentation of those opposed to the legislation he continues his decline:
"There isn't a country in the world that doesn't take particular measures to protect its Parliament."As if people were suggesting something different. It would be extremely interesting to draw up a list of parliaments which are protected by a similar piece of legislation however as that is the context, though that in itself would not necessarily change the objection fundamentally.
I can't help but feel that the BBC report misrepresents the Lord in some way. Certainly from their report he comes across as someone lacking in the kind of skills we might expect to be richly represented within a lord chancellor.
He certainly seems to be playing someone elses tune, but can that really be true?
