Man arrested as tries to reach Blair

[LivingInTheBubble]

"A Labour Party member was arrested as he tried to confront Tony Blair over the Iraq war as the prime minister was on his way to deliver his keynote speech in Bournemouth.

Some reports suggest the man, who was later released without charge, had shouted that he wanted to perform a citizen's arrest on Mr Blair in a protest over the war in Iraq.

Dorset Police say they arrested a 41-year-old man from Cardiff for a public order offence after he approached the prime minister and his wife as they walked from their hotel to the conference centre.

But they insisted there had been no security breach in the incident, which apparently delayed Mr Blair's speech by about 10 minutes.
"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3153170.stm

Dissent is not allowed it seems.

[demdave]

1. Dissent is allowed, a physical or verbal confrontation is not a right.

You may protest all you want, nobody is required to listen. Elected officials are only required to get enough votes to enter office. They do this, hopefully , by listening to the electorate, but there is no law saying they have to listen. Our only recourse is to vote them out.

Nobody has a right to my time or attention to air their point of view. I chose who to listen to and who to ignore. Elected officials do not give up this right when they are elected, they are merely judged at the polls over how they exercise it.

[LivingInTheBubble]

3. I suppose you dont agree with protests then?

Or is it only valid when the people are stuck behind barricades.

I agree though that physical acts arent acceptable but thats not what happened here, from my reading of the article he seems to have been led away for merely trying to talk to blair.

I suppose blair doesnt want a repeat of what happened with an angry housewife a year or two ago.

[demdave]

4. Why should Blair talk to him? What gives this protester the right to be

heard? As I stated earlier, you have the right to protest and others have the right to ignore the protest. Just that simple. When the protesters begin thinking that others have to listen, bad things happen. I think it is arrogant to think that ones opinion is so overpoweringly important that others HAVE to listen to it.

[MoonAndSun]

2. More snips from article:

snip> A police spokesman said the man was not a delegate but had a "member visitor" pass and so had been entitled to be in the conference area.

"He would have gone through the normal conference security procedures - which include pass checks and searches," added the spokesman





sounds like he is a very angry constituent wanting to tell Blair what he thought of him. still a very dumb thing to do. I don't want some nutcase offing Blair or bush*, it will just make them martyrs in the eyes of the media.

[Trek234]

5. Get real!

Please don't tell me you are serious.

"Dissent is not allowed" Give me a break. This guy was going at the PM of England. What, should the PM just assume that everyone that approaches - and wants to "talk" about something the PM did to piss that person off enough to want to go and "talk" to the PM in the first place - isn't going to pull a knife or gun on him?

Would we let any random person go over to the president of the united states like that? Would ANY leader of a nation let a person do that?

The action taken was ENTIRELY appropriate in order to insure the PMs life was safe. If this had happened in the states with Bush the guy would probably be facing some trumped up BS charge facing X hundred years in jail. At least England went easy on him as they should have. (no charge)

[LivingInTheBubble]

6. ...

From
http://society.guardian.co.uk/health/story/0,7890,508992,00.html
to
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=81288134&p=8yz8884x

Other places are different to the US...

And remember the punch from Prescott? Maybe not I suppose..

Its quite normal to be in the thick of things, the difference is now he has a card carrying labour party member no less is arrested.

Not everywhere isolates their leaders from the public as much as the US does.

Its going to be very hard aswell if he has to beware his own party.

[Trek234]

7. Yea right

Ok - Blair should be kept in public access with anyone off the street able to approach him at random. Nevermind the fact his nation is in essentially time of war and he has certain Iraqi/Afghan organizations gunning for him.

After all surely no one who is registered as a Labour party member would hurt him. Seriously, I keep thinking right now "are you for real?". Surely no assasin would be smart enough to join the Labour party if it would help him kill the PM.

And how should he know if people are in the Labour party? (let's just believe the absured assumption that someone is less likely to kill the PM because he has joined the Labour party) Should he flash his papers as he approaches? What if they are fake? I'm not even going to go on - this too much of a joke already.

After these series of posts I hope you never plan on joining the secret service or other such organization. Come back ground check time you're out.

[demdave]

8. Read the whole post.

A police spokesman said the man was not a delegate but had a "member visitor" pass and so had been entitled to be in the conference area.

It says nothing of the man's party affiliation.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. First words: "A Labour Party member..." (n/t)