Silent protest

If there's one thing Britain is good at it's knee-jerk, ill-conceived reaction to a prevailing problem. We normally solve these problems by producing equally irrelevant, unenforceable legislation that infringes the rights of the innocent instead of deterring the guilty. I've been spurred into writing a second entry today by the Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2 earlier on. One of JV's guests was Neil Goodwin, who has recently fallen foul of the Westminster protest exclusion zone.

You'll not find a better example of ambiguous, unenforceable and knee-jerk legislation than the establishment of this zone. The zone was established by the catchily titled "Statutory Instrument 2005 No. 1537, The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, (Designated Area) Order 2005." This order outlaws spontaneous acts of public protest in Westminster, Whitehall and surrounding areas.

Like many pieces of legislation its intentions were probably honorable at the outset. The idea was to reduce the risk of terrorist attack on the heart of the British government in the wake of the 9/11 atrocities in the US. This is arguably a noble cause. What the order doesn't take into account is that most terrorists don't dress up in funny costumes, wielding colourful placards and shouting through megaphones before launching a bombing campaign on the Houses of Parliament. On the contrary, the average self-respecting terrorist tends to slime their way discreetly into position and strike when they can cause maximum loss of life and carnage.