In the UK, protest is now a crime

A peace activist has become the first person in Britain to be convicted under a law designed to save the UK Parliament from having to listen to the people. In October, Maya Evans staged a protest beside London's cenotaph, in which she read out the names of 97 British soldiers killed in Iraq. She was arrested and charged under a newly-passed law which makes it illegal to stage any unauthorised protest within half a mile of Parliament buildings. The law was explictly designed to remove an anti-war protestor who had been maintaining a vigil in Parliament Square for the last four years.

So, in the UK, the government can now stifle protest at will, and arrest people who are doing nothing more than expressing their opinions peacefully and quietly. Such is the cost of the "war on terror".