You can have free speech until it gets on my nerves

David Cameron has tried, since taking over the reigns of the Tory party in 2005, to portray himself as a 'liberal' Conservative. (Aswell as other paradoxes such as 'green' Conservative and 'compassionate' Conservative, lest we forget!) DC is a smart man, he knows what he's playing at just like Tony Blair did in 1994. Both these men realised that there is a hugely substantial middle class vote out there that has no allegience to the trade union cause, has no real affiliation to the upper class Tory background and, in many regards, is the electoral key to the UK. Britain has a fairly run-of-the-mill liberal middle class that likes fairly run of the mill liberal middle class issues.

The trouble that Blair had, though, was that he was not a liberal. He portrayed himself as one quite well and seemed to pursue a fairly prolific agenda of social justice. Of course, when it came to the crunch: on terrorism, on free speech, on constitutional reform, on local government reforms, new Labour fell short because liberalism just isn't their bag.

Today, David Cameron showed one of his ever increasing signs of heading down the same path - and he's not even in government, yet.

In 2005, Blair and then Home Secretary Charles Clarke pushed the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act through parliament - a horrid piece of legislation which, among other things, made it illegal to protest within a kilometre of parliament without prior permission from the police. The right to protest is a fundamental facet of liberal democracies such as the one we pride ourselves of in the UK today and to demand a weeks notice (or 24 hours if a week is impracticable) severely undermines this right and completely removes the power of the spontaneous protest.

Brian Haw installed himself in Parliament Square in 2001 in opposition to sanctions in Iraq and there he has remained, steadfast in his opposition to the Iraq war. I've met Brian on a number of occassions. He's a nuisance, he's rude, he's abrupt, he's pig headed and he's single minded. He's quite possibly spent a little bit too long in his own little world in Parliament Square and maybe he's lost touch with the world outside it a bit. (I'm still talking about Brian Haw here, not our MPs.) He's not intimidating, not as far as I've seen anyway, but he's a real pain in the back side for the government. Why? Because they don't like what he's saying. Some even say, with a large degree of credibility, that the parts of SOCPA which make it illegal to protest there (ss.132-138) were written specifically to get rid of him. (Thanks to a drafting error, that failed.)

Brian may be all those things above but he is one other thing: a human being. Not only that, he's a British citizen and, as such, has every right to petition his government and long may that right continue! That is what democracy is all about, ladies and gentlemen. Democracy isn't pretty at times and it sure as hell isn't perfect but if you laud it, you live with it.

Brian Haw has every right to be in Parliament Square to say his piece and he has every right to continue being there until the government take on his view. If they never take on his view? He has every right to remain. If he's causing the government a headache? Good! That's the point.

If David Cameron is serious about evicting Brian and his peace protestors when he wins the next election then he isn't serious about democracy and accountability. But, then, we could have guessed that: he's a Tory.

What makes this proposal even more offensive is where it is Brian is being evicted from. If he was protesting in the City of London, outside ordinary workplaces or in a town centre, or in residential areas, or pretty much anywhere else, then there might be a case. Parliament, however, is the centrepoint of our democracy. It is where we and our MPs are intended to hold our government to account and where we are supposed to hold our MPs to account if they fail to hold our government to account. Having a voice at Parliament may not be the most efficient way to get the message across but its certainly one of the boldest. If David Cameron removes protestors from outside Parliament, he'll be putting Westminster in much, much more of a secluded little bubble than it already is. I wonder what the voters in Norwich North would think about that...