You may have missed this, the Tories announced they would abolish the FSA on the same day that Cameron said a few words about protesting in Parliament Square.
The building block of Britain is the right to free speech and to protest. According to BBC News, David Cameron would remove protestors from Parliament Square, who he claims have turned the area into a “pretty poor place”.
Parliament passed a law which banned protesting within a certain distance of parliament some years ago, I was against that idea in principle – it removes our basic right to protest. It didn’t destroy the whole principle of democracy, but did deal a blow to those who would wish to protest otherwise lawfully.
Brian Haw has campaigned in the square almost continually for many years, against the Iraq war. A loophole in the legislation has allowed him to stay. Cameron wants him gone.
But just to make matters worse, the people we elect to represent us, from all parties, have said they don’t like the fact that people can protest in Parliament Square.
Thinking literally, if the British people were against the right to protest, they would be complaining about Mr. Haw. The only people I see complaining are those we elect to represent us. Allowing them to become more draconian is allowing our rights as citizens in the UK to be gracefully yet brutally eroded, piecemeal.
The area may have been disrupted by Tamil protestors, but I still say that if you feel you need to protest, the right to protest on our elected representative’s doorstep is a fundamental right of anyone in Britain.
But yes, let’s abolish the FSA, it is expensive, and made a mistake once. Instead we’ll give the same job to the Bank of England. Surely most staff would move, lock-stock-and-barrell. Where’s the saving? Where’s the extra guarantees? Same people, same jobs, different company. No solution. Big headache.
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