Blair's Britain 2005 - where peaceful protest can be costly

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http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article332149.ece

 

12 December 2005 06:50

 

Blair's Britain 2005 - where peaceful protest can be costly

Published: 10 December 2005

 

 

 

 

Arrested over demonstration at arms fair

 

The cases of Pennie Quinton and Kevin Gillan are due before the House

of Lords next month as civil rights campaigners attempt to show that

anti-terrorism laws to stop and search are being used unlawfully. Mr

Gillan, 28, a postgraduate student from Sheffield, and Ms Quinton, 34,

a freelance photo-journalist, were among about 140 people arrested

under the Terrorism Act 2000 at an arms fair at the Excel Centre in

east London in 2003.

 

Lawyers for Liberty argued that the " draconian " powers were being used

in a way that was never intended by Parliament and that they had

unlawfully deterred members of the public from demonstrating

peacefully. The Court of Appeal gave the police the benefit of the doubt.

 

Convicted over anti-corporate stunt

 

The self-styled George Fox Six burst into a lecture theatre at

Lancaster University in September last year to protest at a corporate

conference. They picked a conference attended by executives from BAE

Systems, DuPont, GlaxoSmithKline and Shell to highlight what they

believed were malign relationships between academic research and business.

 

In response to the protest, their own university insisted on pressing

charges for aggravated trespass.

 

In October the six - two undergraduates, two postgraduates, a former

student and a student from an affiliated college - were found guilty

at Lancaster magistrates' court. A district judge gave each a

conditional discharge and ordered them to pay £300 costs.

 

Detained for throwing a tea party

 

It started as a joke for Mark Barrett, a tour guide, and a few other

protesters. Angered at the planned exclusion zone for unauthorised

demonstrations around Parlia- ment Square, he went to aprotest in August.

 

He said: " There were various people there with placards. I said,

'Let's go and throw tea into the Thames as they did at the Boston Tea

Party.' We had a bit of a laugh. Now we have a tea party protest every

Sunday. "

 

Thus was born the People of the Commons Picknickers, angered by

Section 132 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005.

 

Mr Barrett, 36, and 20 other activists were arrested. He is due in

court next month. " The law is about the attempt to marginalise

people's points of view, " he said. " It is anti-democratic and an abuse

of power. "

 

Apprehended for 'offensive' T-shirt

 

John Catt, an 80-year-old peace campaigner, was stopped by police

officers as a terrorist suspect in Brighton in September - for wearing

a T-shirt with anti-Blair and Bush slogans.

 

Mr Catt, who served in the RAF during the Second World War, was

stopped, searched by police and made to sign a form confirming he had

been interviewed under the 2000 Terrorism Act.

 

The official record of the encounter confirms that the " purpose " of

the search was " terrorism " and the " grounds for intervention " were

" carrying plackard and T-shirt with anti-Blair info " (sic).

 

Mr Catt was offered a caution by police, but refused and plans to

plead not guilty at a trial due to start in January. He had travelled

into Brighton from his home in Withdean, on the outskirts of the city.

 

" I said I was going to voice my opposition to the Iraq War. He [the

policeman] said: 'We're going to give you a copy of this form.'

 

" People should have the right to protest non-violently. The

anti-terrorism laws should not be used to stop people doing that. "

 

Threatened with jail for Iraq protest

 

Douglas Barker has adopted a new approach to resistance to the war, by

withholding 10 per cent of his income tax in protest at Britain's

involvement.

 

The former RAF serviceman, who is 72, owns a 200-acre estate in

Wiltshire and describes himself as a lifelong socialist who was a firm

supporter of Tony Blair until the war. On Wednesday, he was threatened

with jail if he continued to refuse to pay the £1,142.58 the Inland

Revenue says he owes. When completing his tax return for the second

half of this year, Mr Barker, 72, estimated that 10 per cent of all

government expenditure went on the military. He said: " I came to the

conclusion that by paying this, I was violating my conscience, because

I felt it would have been used illegally to kill people in a sovereign

state.

 

" If I have to go to jail, I will go to jail. "

 

Held for shouting 'nonsense' at Jack Straw

 

Walter Wolfgang, 82, a Labour party member for 57 years, became a

cause célèbre after he was bundled out of the Labour Party conference

hall in Brighton in September.

 

His offence was to shout " nonsense " as Jack Straw, the Foreign

Secretary, defended Britain's role in Iraq.

 

He was later stopped under anti-terrorist powers as he tried to

re-enter the hall. The heavy-handed treatment of Mr Wolfgang revived

criticism of the " control freakery " associated with Labour.

 

Mr Wolfgang fled Nazi Germany as a teenager for Britain. He said: " I

shouted out 'nonsense'. That's all I said. Then these two toughies

came round and wanted to manhandle me out ... Physically, I am not too

well, so I said I would follow them. "

 

The over-reaction by conference stewards backfired and turned into a

public relations disaster for the party. The anti-terror law used to

stop Mr Wolfgang was Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000. It is

supposed to be deployed against suspected terrorists, not protesters.

 

Convicted for reading the names of 97 war dead

 

Maya Evans, 25, this week became the first person to be convicted

under the new laws banning demonstrations near Parliament. She was

given a conditional discharge and ordered to pay £100 in costs after

being found guilty of breaching Section 132 of the Serious Organised

Crime and Police Act 2005. Her " serious " crime was to stand by the

Cenotaph, close to Downing Street, reading aloud the names of the 97

British soldiers who have died in Iraq.

 

Ms Evans, a part-time vegan chef from Hastings, east Sussex, was

considered such a threat that two police sergeants and 12 constables

in two minibuses were sent to arrest her.

 

Following her conviction, which saddles her with a criminal record,

she said: " I just think it's a shame that you cannot voice your

freedom of speech. It sends out a message that you will be arrested

for remembering the dead. "

 

Arrested over demonstration at arms fair

 

The cases of Pennie Quinton and Kevin Gillan are due before the House

of Lords next month as civil rights campaigners attempt to show that

anti-terrorism laws to stop and search are being used unlawfully. Mr

Gillan, 28, a postgraduate student from Sheffield, and Ms Quinton, 34,

a freelance photo-journalist, were among about 140 people arrested

under the Terrorism Act 2000 at an arms fair at the Excel Centre in

east London in 2003.

 

Lawyers for Liberty argued that the " draconian " powers were being used

in a way that was never intended by Parliament and that they had

unlawfully deterred members of the public from demonstrating

peacefully. The Court of Appeal gave the police the benefit of the doubt.

 

Convicted over anti-corporate stunt

 

The self-styled George Fox Six burst into a lecture theatre at

Lancaster University in September last year to protest at a corporate

conference. They picked a conference attended by executives from BAE

Systems, DuPont, GlaxoSmithKline and Shell to highlight what they

believed were malign relationships between academic research and business.

 

In response to the protest, their own university insisted on pressing

charges for aggravated trespass.

 

In October the six - two undergraduates, two postgraduates, a former

student and a student from an affiliated college - were found guilty

at Lancaster magistrates' court. A district judge gave each a

conditional discharge and ordered them to pay £300 costs.

 

Detained for throwing a tea party

 

It started as a joke for Mark Barrett, a tour guide, and a few other

protesters. Angered at the planned exclusion zone for unauthorised

demonstrations around Parlia- ment Square, he went to aprotest in August.

 

He said: " There were various people there with placards. I said,

'Let's go and throw tea into the Thames as they did at the Boston Tea

Party.' We had a bit of a laugh. Now we have a tea party protest every

Sunday. "

 

Thus was born the People of the Commons Picknickers, angered by

Section 132 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005.

 

Mr Barrett, 36, and 20 other activists were arrested. He is due in

court next month. " The law is about the attempt to marginalise

people's points of view, " he said. " It is anti-democratic and an abuse

of power. "

 

Apprehended for 'offensive' T-shirt

 

John Catt, an 80-year-old peace campaigner, was stopped by police

officers as a terrorist suspect in Brighton in September - for wearing

a T-shirt with anti-Blair and Bush slogans.

 

Mr Catt, who served in the RAF during the Second World War, was

stopped, searched by police and made to sign a form confirming he had

been interviewed under the 2000 Terrorism Act.

 

The official record of the encounter confirms that the " purpose " of

the search was " terrorism " and the " grounds for intervention " were

" carrying plackard and T-shirt with anti-Blair info " (sic).

 

Mr Catt was offered a caution by police, but refused and plans to

plead not guilty at a trial due to start in January. He had travelled

into Brighton from his home in Withdean, on the outskirts of the city.

 

" I said I was going to voice my opposition to the Iraq War. He [the

policeman] said: 'We're going to give you a copy of this form.'

 

" People should have the right to protest non-violently. The

anti-terrorism laws should not be used to stop people doing that. "

 

Threatened with jail for Iraq protest

 

Douglas Barker has adopted a new approach to resistance to the war, by

withholding 10 per cent of his income tax in protest at Britain's

involvement.

 

The former RAF serviceman, who is 72, owns a 200-acre estate in

Wiltshire and describes himself as a lifelong socialist who was a firm

supporter of Tony Blair until the war. On Wednesday, he was threatened

with jail if he continued to refuse to pay the £1,142.58 the Inland

Revenue says he owes. When completing his tax return for the second

half of this year, Mr Barker, 72, estimated that 10 per cent of all

government expenditure went on the military. He said: " I came to the

conclusion that by paying this, I was violating my conscience, because

I felt it would have been used illegally to kill people in a sovereign

state.

 

" If I have to go to jail, I will go to jail. "

 

Held for shouting 'nonsense' at Jack Straw

 

Walter Wolfgang, 82, a Labour party member for 57 years, became a

cause célèbre after he was bundled out of the Labour Party conference

hall in Brighton in September.

 

His offence was to shout " nonsense " as Jack Straw, the Foreign

Secretary, defended Britain's role in Iraq.

 

He was later stopped under anti-terrorist powers as he tried to

re-enter the hall. The heavy-handed treatment of Mr Wolfgang revived

criticism of the " control freakery " associated with Labour.

 

Mr Wolfgang fled Nazi Germany as a teenager for Britain. He said: " I

shouted out 'nonsense'. That's all I said. Then these two toughies

came round and wanted to manhandle me out ... Physically, I am not too

well, so I said I would follow them. "

 

The over-reaction by conference stewards backfired and turned into a

public relations disaster for the party. The anti-terror law used to

stop Mr Wolfgang was Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000. It is

supposed to be deployed against suspected terrorists, not protesters.

 

Convicted for reading the names of 97 war dead

 

Maya Evans, 25, this week became the first person to be convicted

under the new laws banning demonstrations near Parliament. She was

given a conditional discharge and ordered to pay £100 in costs after

being found guilty of breaching Section 132 of the Serious Organised

Crime and Police Act 2005. Her " serious " crime was to stand by the

Cenotaph, close to Downing Street, reading aloud the names of the 97

British soldiers who have died in Iraq.

 

Ms Evans, a part-time vegan chef from Hastings, east Sussex, was

considered such a threat that two police sergeants and 12 constables

in two minibuses were sent to arrest her.

 

Following her conviction, which saddles her with a criminal record,

she said: " I just think it's a shame that you cannot voice your

freedom of speech. It sends out a message that you will be arrested

for remembering the dead. "