It's no wonder that the general public in the UK is ready to see Blair move on. Freedom of speech, freedom of movement and the right to protest are all disappearing under the creepy New Labour policies of Blair. The latest targets include two British grandmothers who are caught up in new anti-terrorism laws.
Helen John, 68, and Sylvia Boyes, 62, both veterans of the Greenham Common protests 25 years ago, were arrested on Saturday after deliberately setting out to highlight a change in the law which civil liberties groups say will criminalise free speech and further undermine the right to peaceful demonstration.The article also includes some other examples of arrests in the UK that are related to public dissent and the new anti-terror laws including the rough treatment of an 82 year old Labour Party member who heckled Jack Straw's pro-wars peech last year.
Under the little-noticed legislation, which came into effect last week, protesters who breach any one of 10 military bases across Britain will be treated as potential terrorists and face up to a year in jail or £5,000 fine. The protests are curtailed under the Home Secretary's Serious Organised Crime and Police Act.
"We thought this was a really important issue and we just had to challenge it," said Mrs John, who was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize last year. Mrs Boyes, who was cleared by a jury at Manchester Crown Court in 1999 of causing criminal damage to a British nuclear submarine, said: " I am quite willing to break the law and prepared to be charged and to go to prison. The Government thinks it can do whatever it wants and that it has a passive public which accepts whatever it throws at it. I find it very worrying."
