The Right To Protest

Interesting (well you can be the judge of that) article on the BBC about a planned protest at Heathrow Airport over the next couple of weeks.

The spokesman for BAA, who own the airport said "We are only injuncting those who wish to act unlawfully... There is nothing to stop anyone from coming to the airport if they wish to act lawfully."

Which is a truly marvellous idea! Why don't they take an injunction out on the entire country and if anyone who is planning to do unlawful things happens to turn up, they can be arrested. Probably by the Psychic Police. Because planning to do something unlawful and actually *doing* something unlawful are two quite different things.

I've planned many times on exactly how I'd shoot George W Bush in the head. I've mused long and hard on exactly what type of weapon would be the most amusing (finally decided on the trebuchet) and where would be best to fire from (Canada). But I'm not going to do it (well, not yet) so I'm fairly sure I can't be arrested for it. Mainly because we don't appear to live in "Minority Report" just yet.

Anyway, the most entertaining part (for me anyway, I'm sure you'll be bored long before getting down that far) of the article about the airport protest is the response of the Liberal Democrat Transport Secretary, Susan Kramer MP, who said "Protest is a basic British right." A right which seemed to be taken away from us slightly when Parliament (of which she is a member) voted to stop protests from taking place within a mile of Westminster.