BBC NEWS | UK | Police to join in pay row rally

I don't know if many people from outside the UK know this, but a few years ago, the Government brought in a law that stops people protesting outside parliment without prior police permission.

This was supposed to be to protect Parliment, but in reality it was to stop embarassment at protests against the Iraq war, which was incredibly unpopular here. Over 1 million people marched against the War before it started, 1/9th the entire population of London...that is massive.

Since that has happened the Police in our country have harassed a man who has held a vigil outside Parliment for 5 years. They arrested a woman for reading out a list of those that have died in the Iraq war, at the Cenotaph, a memorial to war victims.

So now the police want to march? Now they want to protest, because their own interests are being eroded by the Government.

Man I REALLY REALLY hope that the Government sends in the Army to stop them marching.

Cause then those bastards might get an inkling of what it feels like for us when they arrest us for protesting.

i hope they arrest gordon brown while they are at it and reinstate blair. if only blair could run for president here. i can't believe the red coats forced him out. are you guys insane?

I don't suppose I should be surprised that an American wants a liar in office. I suppose it makes a matching pair.

George W Bush:
"I didn't know that the levies were weak!"

Video comes out:

"Mr President, the levies are weak."

Tony Blair:
"Iraq can attack with weapons of mass destruction in just 45 minutes!"

Truth:
"Iraq could deploy normal weapons on a battle field IN Iraq, in 45 minutes."

Like two lying peas in a pod.

that levies argument is weak. there is so many more people to blame. blame clinton, blame 1st bush, blame reagan. blame all of them. i go to an academy here and if you know new orleans, you know it wasn't bush's fault.

blair's comments are true. europe is fucked if one of these countries attacks one of them. talk about chaos.

I didn't blame Bush for Katrina. I said he lied about knowing about the levies.

Which he did.

That isn't what Blair said either, he said that Iraq could attack us with WMD in 45 mins and when he said it, he knew it was a lie.

Only someone who knows little about Britain, its politics and its people would make such a statement. Although Tony Blair started his premiership on a wave of popularity, he became one of the most unpopular prime ministers of all time. He was a pathological liar, a peddler of broken promises and a man who used spin and any unscrupulous trick he could to benefit his policies.

Why should they? They will have cleared the march through the necessary channels.

They only arrest those who refuse to protest peacefully or break the law in other ways. And quite rightly too!

Maya Evans, Brian Haw, Milan Rai.

3 People who all protested peacefully, all people who were arrested by the Polce.

When Milan Rai was taken to court, even the Judge conceeded that he had above all else remained polite. They also conceeded that the Polce KNEW of the protest months in advance.

Milan Rai refused to fill in paperwork so that he could protest, he told the police months in advance, but he said that filling in paperwork went against his Human Rights, under article 10 and 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights, the Right to Free and Peaceful Protest.

They removed our right to protest without permission.

That is the ONLY law these 3 people broke, and Brian Haw didn't even break that law, since he was there BEFORE the Law was created and they didn't make it retroactive he was legally allowed to be there. The only law that poor man broke was having a bunch of signs that 'supposedly' were larger then he was allowed, except, when they took him to court the Judge said that the law was soo vague as to be meaningless and the police had no grounds to arrest him at all.

These people did nothing wrong, yet the police still stepped in.

Now they want to protest?

They want to be a part of what stops us protesting, and then want to go out and protest when it suits them?

Just doesn't seem right to me.

They did not follow the letter of the law regarding protests or demos in the vicinity of the Houses of Parliament.

Anyway, regardless of this, your argument doesn't hold water. It isn't the police who make laws. It is the government and this law was made by Tony Blair and his cronies. The police simply enforce the law. So, instead of directing your venom at the police, you should be aiming it where it belongs...on the doorstep of number 10!

No they didn't. As I said above, this was done by the government.

I have had this argument.

It boils down to this, the police have discrentionary powers.

You are from England right Lancer, so you can verify this.

If someone hits your car, and then drives off without giving you their details, this is a crime.

It is a law created by Parliment that the police are supposed to enforce.

Now if you get hit by a car, like I did, you get the licence plate number, you take it to the police, you fill in a "Self Fulfillment" form detailing the accident.

You know what the police do?

They write back saying:

"Contact your insurance company"

They are NOT enforcing that law anymore.

That is a choice that the local police service makes.

So they can choose to ignore that law, but not this one, not one that goes against a right we have had in this country for countless centuries?

So no, I don't think the police can hide behind the 'its the law we have to enforce it' argument, because there are plenty examples of other laws that the police do not enforce.

So if they decided to not enforce them, they could have chosen to not enforce this one too.

THey didn't, they choose to side with the Government on this one.

Now they want our sympathy and our support in their struggle against the Government for their pay and I find that a bit sickening. I would tell them to go away and rethink their stance on 90 day detention, their stance on ID cards and their stance on the exclusion zone around Parliment, and then come back to the British people when they have decided to support us, and get the support they need.