Rt. Hon. Michael Mates
Contribution to “Off The Fence”
The security breaches at Buckingham Palace and the House of Commons sound shocking and culpable at first but leave us with a problem.
In the case of Buckingham Palace, it clearly was an error by the people on the ground to have been diverted by the assault on the main gates while
Mr. Hatch climbed over a fence on a ladder. But all the security systems worked and the Response Unit was able to track his every movement. If this had happened in the United States, Mr. Hatch would have been shot dead and most Americans would have said it served him right. Had Mr. Hatch, campaigning for Fathers 4 Justice, been shot by the Police on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, there would have been an uproar and they would have been told they were over-reacting. So the authorities cannot win on this.
Similarly, the protestors who got into the House of Commons were helped by an insider, having passed through security with a forged letter. Nevertheless, they were subject to an X-ray and body search so could not have brought any weapons or explosives in with them.
The dilemma is this. Do we want to live in a country where non-violent protest is banned on pain of death and where security is such that our democratic institutions have to be closed to the public? It is the fear of terrorism that raises this question and my view is that, while we must be utterly robust with the terrorist threat and all operators and perpetrators of terrorism, we must continue to tolerate, within the realms of safety, such incidents as were caused by “Batman” and the hunt protestors in the House of Commons. It is certainly embarrassing and leads to inquiries and ever increased security but, on the whole, I do not want to see our daily lives so restricted by security that our quality of life is diminished. That would be a victory for terrorism.
