Using a paving slab to swat a fly

I refer you back to this post from a few weeks ago. Yesterday, a regiment of police descended on Parliament Square and carted off the ramshackle protest village assembled by Brian Haw, "including bedding, clothes and a treasured Bible."

Haw himself was not carted off to jail, but was allowed to remain with a much smaller protest, pending an appearance in court in a week to answer charges of "breaching conditions to demonstrate in the square." Never mind that he was there long before the law was even a twinkle in Blair's eye.

So a peaceful protest that has gone on since 2001 has been decimated because, as I said before, "Tony Blair can't stand the fact that some people don't agree with him about some things." There's nothing remotely threatening about Brian Haw's protest, as evidenced by the fact that he's been there for five years without getting pulled in by the police.

What the new terrorism laws lack in their application is a sense of perspective and of basic common sense. And the fact that 50 police officers have to swoop down and dismantle one man's shelter and a few placards amply demonstrates that lack of perspective.

I'll be visiting Brian Haw's gaff this weekend to shake his hand and thank him for doing my civic duty.