Ealing North
| |
|
Steve Pound MP Ealing North |
|
|
Men in tights tackle the tee-shirt “terrorists”September 2004 As one who had a certain fondness for direct action in my more radical youth I looked on with mixed feelings as the brawny young gentlemen burst into the House of Commons chamber last week. There’s no getting away from the fact this this was, on the surface, a profoundly farcical occasion in the best tradition of Carry On up the Commons. Unfortunately there is a very serious side to the aristocratic assault on Parliament. Debate now rages between those who would wrap us tight in razor wire and the more thoughtful ones who accept that we will always be a target and the costs to our democracy of sealing off the sounding board of the nation may well be too high. There have been plenty of incursions before and reaction was usually resigned and stoic. When a group of militant lesbians abseiled into the House of Lords most of their Lordships were at a complete loss to know what was occurring. Some are still under the impression that the invasion was effected by small boat handlers from one of the lesser Greek islands and still wonder what Her Majesty’s Government had done to offend the citizens of Lesbos. The late James Roche hurled a canister of CS gas from the public gallery of the Commons twenty-four years ago and his cry of “See how ye like that, ye ********” is still remembered by more senior Parliamentarians. Yet it was only twenty-five years ago that Airey Neave MP was murdered by the INLA with a bomb underneath his car. Every night that I drive up the slope from the underground car-park I pass the spot where Airey Neave died and can seldom suppress a shiver. In my time we have been showered with paper cut-outs of babies, rather unpleasant leaflets and, of course, witnessed the PM pinged by a purple powder packed prophylactic projectile. Robin Cook is a man for whom my admiration grows daily. Speaking with the gravitas of a former Leader of the House he argues passionately against the security of the Palace of Westminster being taken away from the house authorities and handed over to the Met or the military. The present Serjeant at Arms, Sir Michael Cummins, is due to retire and his successor, General Peter Peterkin has been appointed. Gen. Peterkin can’t help his name but he really does sound like a Beatrix Potter character in a Harry Potter world. Robin is nearly always right but my instinct is to treat the Palace like any other public building and if the Met are responsible for the Greenford Hall then let them look after Westminster Hall as well. We may have made ourselves look rather foolish last week but I would respectfully suggest that the toffs in tee-shirts did their cause no good at all. Just as the Fathers4Justice protestor at Buckingham Palace has exposed himself as the sort of person who would have problems in a perfect world, the lovers of blood “sports” have just underlined how divorced from reality they are. To label this business as Town v Country is nonsense and we should remember that bear-baiting was banned by a majority of country MPs and that the foul practice of tormenting bears to death with dogs was an entirely urban perversion. At the time the legislation was described as Country v Town and that description was as daft as the reverse is today. This is not a class issue – it is a cruelty issue and I was delighted to cast my vote for a ban on the barbarism of hunting with hounds. I just wish that the law would come in a little quicker. Let’s keep the Commons open and remember that those who shout the loudest aren’t necessarily right. |
|
|
|
| Disclaimer | Copyright | Designed by Bassam Mahfouz. Promoted by Julian Bell, The Labour Party, Ruskin Hall, 16 Church Road, W3 8PP on behalf of Steve Pound MP |
