By Ned Simons - 1st July 2011
Protestors camped out in Parliament Square make the site look like the Glastonbury Festival, a peer has complained.
Lord Ramsbotham made the comments as peers debated the Parliament Square (Management) Bill that would create a special committee to oversee the running of the square.
Moves to clear protestors out of the square and the surrounding pavement had proved difficult as different sides of the green were owned by different authorities.
Under the government's Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill Westminster council will be able to remove encampments from the area.
He told peer: "Parliament Square should be cared for, so that the impression it creates is more akin to the dignity of the surroundings than to accommodation areas at the Glastonbury festival.
The former general who served in Northern Ireland said such illegal activity would not have been tolerated in Beflast.
"Undeclared marches or demonstrations were regarded as illegal and treated accordingly," he said.
"If such pragmatism was possible in Belfast at the height of the Troubles, surely it cannot be impossible to maintain the dignity of Parliament Square in 2011."
He added: "I am all for freedom of speech and support entirely the right of people to demonstrate and protest in front of Parliament…but marching, protesting and listening to speeches is one thing; living on site is another, particularly if the style of living interferes with public enjoyment of the whole."
Lord Ramsbotham got support from former Tory chancellor Lord Lawson who said it was a "physical and visual embarrassment" as well as a "legislative embarrassment" that Parliament had been able to get rid of the camp.
"What is going on is a squalid eyesore and an embarrassment to all of us who come here everyday, an embarrassment in the eyes of everyone else—in the eyes of overseas visitors in particular," he said.
The problem is not limited to Westminster however. As our friends over at TheParliament.com pointed out.
In Brussels an awareness-raising campaign has been launched to tackle "irresponsible" parliamentary officials who "disfigure" a popular square overlooking the European Parliament.
Article Comments
Parliamentarians don't seem to realise that if people cannot protest in front of them to get their attention, the protestors will just by-pass them.
Don't they understand that Parliament needs to regain credibility as the route to get things done. Going on about eye sores shows they have lost the plot. These protests are about War, Peace, British Foreign Policy, the Parliamentarians need to take them seriuosly!
Jessie Normaschild
1st Jul 2011 at 7:14 pm
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