As a Liberal, I shudder at the thought of banning anything. So to learn that controversial mayor Luftur Rahman and his acolytes have been successful in having the English Defence League march banned. The issue for me is that the practicalities of the march simply will not wed with my beliefs. Therefore I believe it’s probably right to ban the march.
In principle, I am against the banning of any group; it is an idea that is wholly abhorrent to my principles. This applies even to groups like the EDL and the BNP. I have always believed that giving repulsive organisations like the EDL the oxygen of publicity. They often find it poisonous. Throwing them underground only enlivens them with a sense of martyrdom. How often have we heard Nick Griffin say “They tried to ban me from saying it, it’s the truth” that is a powerful recruiting tool.
So why then do I believe it is probably the right decision to ban the EDL march through Tower Hamlets? Well it’s a pained decision, one I’m not entirely comfortable with. However, I believe there to be a large risk of uncontrollable public disorder.
Reading about Tower Hamlets and the mayor their, who quite frankly seems utterly bat shit crazy. Mix that with an ethnically diverse population, relatively high levels of poverty, and a group intent on Islamaphobia, racism and violence, you are asking for trouble.
I do not believe that the EDL would go with peaceful intentions, but simply to cause a rise out of the local population. Many will instinctively go out of their way to as they see it, defend their home territories, and one must have sympathy with that view.
However, we must ask the question, are we willing to risk that in the name of free speech. Wide scale panic and disorder, violence and racial tension? I must say I’m not quite sure whether I’m willing to risk that.
For if we accept it is the government’s role to keep the streets safe, and then sometimes it may be the right thing to do. Just this once I have to forgo that it is.
You can’t ban a march because you believe people involved might be violent. I’d say there was an above average chance of violence at the Iraq War protests in 2003 and Poll Tax protests under Thatcher, May Day anti-capitalist protests under Blair and student protests in the liberal days of the Coalition were allowed to go ahead despite some disturbances at previous protests.
EDL protests happen regularly and have only resulted in violence in a handful of cases. Not all their members are violent neo-Nazis. As a lawful response to previous EDL trouble, the police have arrested those involved in the violence and ever suspended some known trouble makers from attending. This is legal, proportionate and not at odds with our human rights commitments found in the UN Convention and the ECHR.
Suspending civil liberties on such a whim is a very dangerous precedent. Supporting such action because you believe the group protesting to be racist or thinking that the area in question is politically sensitive is double-standards for a liberal.
But you can ban a march if you think it will lead to widespread chaos and disorder. The state must keep order in our streets. I want to see as many protests go ahead as possible. That is for sure. But like a homophobic group marching through a gay quarter or a nazi group marching through a Jewish settlement, there is meaningful “protest” that can be carried out by an Islamaphobic group marching through an area with a highish Muslim population.
Not all of their members are racists and neo-nazis I agree, but everything I have seen and heard of them, both first and second hand suggests the large majority are.
As far as lecturing me on civil liberties. That is completely and utterly bogus. Just read some of my previous posts to see that I’m the biggest civil liberties buff about. But sometimes you just have to accept that the state has to step in an protect the population.
This really isn’t about the EDL, it’s about the area they choose to protest in.
Actually you CAN ban a march if you have intelligence that there may be serious disorder and in this instance the police have got it absolutely right.
I believe as Andrew does that we should have the right to demonstrate freely. However, as someone who grew up in the East End of London in Tower Hamlets, I know only too well about the deprivation and racial tensions that are prevalent in the area. I know how quickly it can kick off and have documented it here in my own blog http://spiderplantland.co.uk/?p=7213
its also very much worth pointing out that ALL political parties including the Liberal Democrats in the area agreed that the march should be banned. Now if even the LibDems are calling for it to be banned in their own back yard what does that tell you?
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