grahambinns.com

So, after my two posts about this topic yesterday I thought I'd shut up about it for a while.

However, in the post this morning, along with my copy of Practical Photographer (which reminded me that I'd forgotten to enter the competition to win a Nikon D300, which I'd been coveting. Meh.) was a letter from my MP, Ben Wallace, to whom I wrote about this matter last Saturday. It reads:

Dear Mr Binns,

Thank you for your email of 12 April about photography in public places.

I am sure you will be pleased to hear that I have now signed Early Day Motion 1155 which urges the Home Office and Association of Police Officers to agree on a photography code for Police Officers on the ground, setting out the public's right to photograph public places and therefore enabling photographers to enjoy their hobby without unjustified suspicion.

Kind regards,

Ben Wallace

It's nice to know that writing to your MP really does work sometimes.

... 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.

Graham Binns posted a photo:

Three hundred and sixty-odd days of 2008, day 38

Taken as Big Ben was striking midnight to ring in the 8th of February. Of course, the bastards turned off the floodlights just as the chimes began, leading to this image being a damn sight darker than I would have liked. I just like the way the leftmost clock face stands out of the darkness.

This was taken from the far side of Westminster bridge with a 200mm lens and steady hands.