But the arrest policy is inconsistent and confusing. Make some sense of this if you can:

Barbara Tucker was arrested for wearing a sign reading "I am not the serious, organised criminal".

Maya Evans was famously convicted last month for ringing a bell in the exclusion area (Even the Daily Mail was incensed over this! ) See Report and Pics.

Yet on 7th January anti-socpa activists and others "held a similar ceremony in the same spot, did not apply for police permission under the socpa law but stayed free" [Report and Pics]

On December 21st, carol singers raising money for medical aid for Iraqi children were ignored. Cops recently refused to arrest Gary Smithers, who was holding a banner reading 'Parliament Square belongs to the People". (Gary was told by the copper who came to speak with him that his banner was 'not a protest, it's a statement of fact'). See report and Pics.

Yet the last 2 weeks have seen nine people convicted under the act simply for holding signs in the square and proclaiming their right to protest. A comprehensive list of arrests and convictions can be seen at spy.org.uk.

KEEPING THEIR POWDER DRY...

It's been widely suggested that Section 132 was only introduced to free the square of veteran protester Brian Haw, and that its failure to do so was somehow a humourous blunder.

Others have pointed out that even today's spineless Members of Parliament might have rebelled against a law that was clearly an act of suppression, designed to remove an Englishman's inalienable right to peaceful protest (continue ad nauseum...) - but given the chance to salve their conscience by targeting someone who was clearly 'a nuisance' they allowed the clause to go through without a whimper.

If that is the case, the government wouldn't have risked a rebellion on a law they have no intention of using. Blair knows he can't fool the people into war twice, this time he's going to have to deal with 2 million on the streets in a very different fashion.

So there's developed a hesitancy to rise to the activist bait and use the act in any way which brings it into disrepute. It's possible that the arrests of Maya Evans and Barbara Tucker were mistakes committed by constables destined to spend the next thirty years on the beat.

This puts activists in a difficult position.

They won't arrest you for something that will look silly in court and get the Daily Mail up in arms. However, cause a real stir and they will, because then they'll say this law only catches crazy anarchists, and that the ordinary man in the street has nothing to worry about.

Until the ordinary man in the street decides that Iran is one country too far, and goes to seek out his MP, that is ...