Another simulataneous lone demonstration
Curses, I am still stuck at work on a deadline. So I will have to hand in my form tomorrow for the next simulataneous demonstration on September 22nd ( deadline is 15th September) . Same drill, as last time, turn up 100% legally, and protest against the Serious Organised Crime Act. Remember, that daft and rather sinister piece of legislation which insists that demonstrations in Parliament Square ( where our elected representatives might see them) must be cleared with the police in writing a week before, making spontaneous outbreaks of democratic, peaceful protest illegal.
Since it is hard to know a full week in advance quite what is round the corner that could require our support or censure, ( the carpet-bombing of Iran, the failure to call for a cease-fire in Lebanon, Gordon Brown taking to the roof of No.10 in a bat-suit ...), it is important to highlight the utter uselessness and stupidity of SOCPA, a pernicious piece of legislation, which is just one of the things that has been used to pick holes in the fabric of our great tradition of freedom of speech.
And since I cannot see why standing outside Parliament, the heart of our democracy and making a peaceful point constitutes the organised behaviour of a serious criminal, I shall try to get down there next week and make my point yet again.
Info, info on how to fill in the form, more info,
what happened last time ( with pics and lots of links)
(Hum. I wonder whether, if I turned up without an application form last week, and protested about the unfortunate Mr. Blair being forced into having to state he'd be gone in a year, whether I'd have been carted off in a police van? Or if I'd stood next to the Cenotaph and started reading out the names of MPs who hadn't signed letters demanding the PM sets a date for his exit, whether I'd have met the same fate as Maya and Milan, who were arrested for reading out the names of British soldiers and Iraqi civilains killed in the Iraq war? )
UPDATE: Brian - whose brave, embarrassing, determined, crazy, noble one-man Parliament Square protest stank in the nostrils of Blair for so long is in court/isn't in court/needs your thoughts and your support as he faces the latest round of this farce. Hat-tip - Justin
Since it is hard to know a full week in advance quite what is round the corner that could require our support or censure, ( the carpet-bombing of Iran, the failure to call for a cease-fire in Lebanon, Gordon Brown taking to the roof of No.10 in a bat-suit ...), it is important to highlight the utter uselessness and stupidity of SOCPA, a pernicious piece of legislation, which is just one of the things that has been used to pick holes in the fabric of our great tradition of freedom of speech.
And since I cannot see why standing outside Parliament, the heart of our democracy and making a peaceful point constitutes the organised behaviour of a serious criminal, I shall try to get down there next week and make my point yet again.
Info, info on how to fill in the form, more info,
what happened last time ( with pics and lots of links)
(Hum. I wonder whether, if I turned up without an application form last week, and protested about the unfortunate Mr. Blair being forced into having to state he'd be gone in a year, whether I'd have been carted off in a police van? Or if I'd stood next to the Cenotaph and started reading out the names of MPs who hadn't signed letters demanding the PM sets a date for his exit, whether I'd have met the same fate as Maya and Milan, who were arrested for reading out the names of British soldiers and Iraqi civilains killed in the Iraq war? )
UPDATE: Brian - whose brave, embarrassing, determined, crazy, noble one-man Parliament Square protest stank in the nostrils of Blair for so long is in court/isn't in court/needs your thoughts and your support as he faces the latest round of this farce. Hat-tip - Justin
posted by Rachel at 7:08 pm
