Houses of Parliament: Access during Demonstrations

Lord Lawson of Blaby Excerpts

Thursday 9th December 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lawson of Blaby]

My Lords, my noble friend suggested that we have to balance the right of access to this House and the House of Commons with the right to demonstrate. In what conceivable way does access by Members of Parliament and Peers to their respective Houses interfere in any way with the right to demonstrate?

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, sheer pressure of numbers on occasion creates difficulties for access to this House. I am sure that the noble Lord, like me, has taken part in many public demonstrations in the past, although it is possible that he was not with me on the demonstration against the Iraq war in which some 2 million of us attempted to walk past Parliament and get as far as Hyde Park. I have to say that the Liberal Democrat contingent never managed to get to Hyde Park because there were so many people there. It is a very important part of our democratic life that we maintain the right to protest. Indeed, I am sure that noble Lords on the coalition Benches will know the coalition agreement off by heart. Among other things, it states:

“We will restore rights to non-violent protest”,

and that is what we are doing.