And you tell me it's the law

Posted at 13:44:52 on Thu, April 17th 2008 by graham
in: austin mitchell mp government housesofparliament in the news law photography

... when it really isn't.

So, finally, someone in a position of influence is doing a bit of stomping about over the recent trend towards the Police (or, worse, people who think they have the same authority as the Police) stopping people from taking photographs, having them deleted or even seizing equipment from photographers whom they deem to be breaking some non-existant law.

Austin Mitchell, MP for Grimsby, has tabled a motion in Parliament to have the law clarified, if not strengthened in favour of the innocent photographer. The BBC has a story about it here.

Please, please, please write to your MP about this and ask them to support the motion. It's ridiculous that we, in a country that's so full of things that are fantastic to photograph, are letting hysteria over terrorism and paedophilila, mostly whipped up by the media, to turn us into the kind of suspicious society that finds even an innocent artistic pastime to be sinister.

I've already written to my MP about this, though I've yet to have a response. If you're wondering where to find your MP's details you can write to them using writetothem.com.

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Graham Binns is a writer, photographer, musician and software developer from Lancaster, England, with far too much hair, a penchant for odd t-shirts and a magnificent hat. He has been making things up for as long as he can remember and has been making code work for long enough to make a living from it.

He has written one novel, which is in the process of composting, and is working remembering how to write before embarking on a second. In the meantime, he photographs things, since it's easier not to have to make the world up in his head all of the time.

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