-- Tony Blair
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I am writing to you to request a detailed and satisfactory explanation and justification for Section 132 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. This states that:
Any person who:
(a) organises a demonstration in a public place in the designated area, or
(b) takes part in a demonstration in a public place in the designated area, or
(c) carries on a demonstration by himself in a public place in the designated area,
is guilty of an offence if, when the demonstration starts, authorisation for the demonstration has not been given in accordance with Section 134(2) of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005.
This law is totally unacceptable. It has reduced the action of free speech within the 'exclusion zone' on the behalf of an individual or a group from a democratic right to a privilege granted by the state. A citizen of the United Kingdom should be able to exercise his/her right to free speech in any public place. This should be so especially in Parliament Square, outside the very centre of a democracy that is admired by many around the world, and one that we should all be proud of. This legislation is a fundamental infringement of civil liberties and has no justification or logical reasoning behind it that I am aware of. The fact also that this law was brought in primarily to hinder the democratic rights of Mr Haw merely because he represented an 'annoyance' is worryingly unaccommodating from a group of people who owe their positions in Parliament and therefore their jobs as MPs to the people who invested trust in them when they were elected.
While requesting both an explanation and a justification for this legislation I would urge you to seriously reconsider it and scrap it altogether. It is these small steps that will result in a political system we can no longer be proud of.
Yours sincerely,
