NEWS: 5 Protestors Break Into House of Commons During Debate

5 Protestors have gained entry to the debating chamber of the House of Commons, in another high profile breach of security. The men were protesting the potential ban on hunting with dogs, scheduled for introduction in 2006.



This security embarrassment follows the Buckingham Palace/Batman fiasco a couple of days ago, and the flour-bombing of Tony Blair, another breach of security in the House of Commons debating chamber. I can't imagine this happening in the States. Where is our security? I'm off to Windsor Castle for a kip in the Queen's bed.

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[edit on 15-9-2004 by Nerdling]

Why would hunting with dogs be banned?

Originally posted by Thatoneguy
Why would hunting with dogs be banned?

"The Hunt" Is a brutal tradition stemming back for hundreds of years, its basically a bunch of rich nobodies who dress up in full garb complete with white jodhpurs and red jackets. They're perched atop horses and are armed with sticks. They're followed by packs of hounds (normally between 50-100) who chase a fox that is released at the beginning of the hunt. They thunder throuhg the fields after the fox generally destroying everything in their path and have no regard for whose land they trespass on.

They hide behind the fact that Fox's are a pest to the countryside. These hunts kill only one fox so they dont really have a leg to stand on.

Its horrific to watch the fox being torn apart by the dogs whilst being cheered on by these arrogant fools on horseback.

Nerdling, get your facts straight!! The foxes are not released. The scent of a fox is picked up by the dogs & the chase is started. Usually, the only foxes caught are those who are aleady sick or old. The alternative is shooting (did you hear about the lamping incident a few days ago when a 13 year old boy got killed), or gassing foxes in their dens. Neither are ideal- shooting often results in injured foxes & gassing kills the cubs. I don't agree with blood sports, but I see the Blair goverment stamping on civil liberties. This is a good way to start an argument in the UK at the moment!!

First Batman at Buckingham and now 5 protestors break into house of commons? Are you guys getting security tips from the US?

I used to be in the Met Police. Most are a bunch of arrogant f@@@wits!!

They can't organise a p@@@-up in a brewery, let alone any security!! Let the Army take over security at the Palace & Parliament.

If i could find time to stop laughing, i might actually be concerned!

Seriously, though, this is BAD. Its our parliament!


P.S. Anyone else think that if one of these guys had been asian, he would most likely have been peppered with bullets?

The protesters who broke into our Parliament - (House of Commons) have actually shown up how bad security is. They could have been terrorists and the fact that t.v has put out news that our P.M was not actually present just shows how important it is to try to ease the fears of the public at large. There has been an announcement that a security review will take place and in an apologetic manner the BBC reporter stated that sadly that will mean the House of Commons will be less accessible to the people. That has been what the U.K Gov has been proud to be, accessible to the people - but do what we must, the ordinary person is now outraged that the upper class oiks can act worse than the hounds they use to hunt with.

The UK should improve the parliament's security
This is unacceptable that they let them in

They weren't shot because they weren't of other ethnic origin. They were white guys who could be taken down within 20 seconds. If they were dressed ethnically or were even darken than white then they'd have been corpses.

There are "levels" of security at Parliament that are very very strictly enforced. Security at Parliament is coordinated by the Sergeant in arms I believe who reports directly to Black Rod, Parliaments security is made up of officers dressed in tights with long coat tails armed with ceremonial swords and telescoping batons...

The speaker of the house must authorise the use of the police in detaining suspects, armed police cannot enter the chamber without the speakers say so, this is a seriously enforced rule. Armed police are available in the public lobby but cannot enter as the police represent the crown, it harks back to civil war days when the police really were run by the crown and impartial security was needed.

The last line are the heavily armed and mobile rapid response squads which include bomb disposal and trained marksmen. Armoured pressurised Jaguar limosines sit in locations ready to take the PM and other members away but if theres a bomb the chamber is sealed.

Tradition over security. They should never have been allowed into Parliament anyway, alas, that is the price of the approachable democracy.

The rumour now is that this must have been an inside job. 10 protestors got inside the building, some dressed as builders, but the rest came in dressed in suits through the members entrance, possibly at the behest of an MP. Sounds like some serious collusion to me...

Ah yes, I saw that on the ITV Evening News tonight.

Its a big and complex building, you need to know your way around. I think they've came in dressed in suits or in cleaners outfits and maybe stripped in the yes and no lobbies... Hrmm.

As being a Security Manager myself in one of the Biggest Security Firms of the Country, if this had happened on one of my sites i would get the sack, its distgusting. This should not happen. Either everyone who goes in and out should be checked (card swipe or personel) and it can be done (Happens all the time in Buisness)

I thought security had been tightened after the flower bomb incident, really is a major embarassment for the guys who run security there.
As for the protesters i do feel for them as a lot of jobs will be lost because of the new laws against hunting.

[edit on 15-9-2004 by Janus]

Yeah, well maybe they've created a few security jobs for themselves now with this little stunt, eh?

IKhave short haired pointers ... and they are beautiful to watch ... They point and are beautiful .. there are also labs that are ducks dogs. And there are also Hog dogs .... all used for specific use. ... And most of the owners of the dogs take very very good care of them from specail shots making them stronger and making them not get sick .

I am ex British armed forces and i now do close protection work and i am utterly ashamed of what happened today. I know we have better security than that available but we dont use it. We rely more on tradition than proper security measures. What is the use of having men in tights with swords (they do not use) in this day and age its pathetic. I think they forget that its not a pantomine its running the bloody country thats what it is. They need to pull their fingers out and sort it out. If that was me in the tights i would have had my sword drawn ready for action that man on the telly was blatantly scared he was hesitant and he was looking for back up before he went in. I would have been straight in there sword swinging and fists flying. For queen and country.

I can't sympathize with ANY hunter's loss of hunting rights or privileges. As far as foxes being problematic... who are they bothering? I understand that farmers take hits to their livestock, but predators take no more than they need to survive. Do we hunt down a species because it gets in our way or gives us a black eye from time to time (appearently so)? We held that metality here in the states for a very long time, involving wolves. In the past we all but obliterated the wolf population here in the U.S., but recently we've gone through great effort to restore the wolf population by importing them from Canada.

If anything, hunting an area's natural predators tends to cause more problems then it solves, and we had to learn the hard way. Myself included, most Americans over-do everything. Now in portions of the U.S. deer populations have become uncontrollable... all because we eliminated their primary natural predator. I understand killing for food, but I think that killing for sport or because they give you a few problems (none directly related to your physical well being) is senseless. In my opinion the justifications presented for this tradition fall far short of being sensible nonetheless moral.

Now something on topic lol. I find this lapse in security more amusing than frightening (mostly 'cause I live in the U.S.). Most of you are correct in suggesting that any real threats would probably have been stopped. I don't mean it to be a racist comment, but not including some of the more radical neo-nazi organizations... white folk don't seem to pose much of a threat to government buildings in Western Europe, but being American my knowledge of this topic is limited. However, I'm willing to bet that if they had been Middle-Eastern or just darker than the average UK local, they wouldn't have gotten nearly as far. Definately a wake-up call though.