We can't shrink from Palestine Action

There is one part of the UK where terrorist flags and placards have rarely been off the news.

- Jonathan Hall

For years, the Northern Ireland media has carried stories and editorials saying more should be done to remove the symbols of terrorist groups from lampposts and housing estates.

The failure to remove flags is cited as evidence of two-tier policing. Indeed, the phrase “two-tier policing”, which has now entered the Westminster lexicon, originated in Northern Ireland.

As it happens, the government is now bringing forward legislation, on my recommendation, to make it easier for police to remove these symbols. The legal provision in question is section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which makes it an offence for someone to display an article “in such a way or in such circumstances as to arouse reasonable suspicion that he is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation”.

A person who commits this offence faces a summary penalty, usually a fine or conditional discharge, and is not in law considered a terrorist (see section 40). This is separate from the more serious offence of inviting support, which requires the prosecution to prove what lawyers call a mental element such as intent.

Few have objected to date to police action to prevent public displays of support for Republican and Loyalist terrorist groups in Northern Ireland, or, in Great Britain, displays in favour of the Sri Lankan LTTE or the Kurdish PKK.