Danger: pensioners at protest

Woke up to a beautiful sunny spring day but then the news that Helen John and Sylvia Boyes have been arrested under the terror laws for protesting at Menwith Hill base against nuclear weapons.

These 'terror grannies' are the latest in a long line of protesters who have fallen foul of the government's laws, in this case the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act.

We've already had the Brian Haw law, which stops us from assembling or using a megaphone within a mile of parliament. A loophole made Brian exempt from that law but the rest of us can be nicked for using a megaphone by the London Eye, Charing Cross station and other dangerous centres of subversion.

The new laws will extend prohibited buildings to include royal palaces and government offices. 'Persistent activity by protesters places them at risk of being mistaken for terrorists.' Oh, so it's for our own good then.

That must be why the government is using more taxpayers' money to appeal and force Brian off Parliament Square.

I was interviewed on Birmingham radio about Helen, who I know as a longstanding protester going back to Greenham Common. I was asked if it was violent to use bolt cutters and a hammer to get into the base.

Have they seen Menwith Hill? It's hardly disproportionate violence to cut the fence of a base which is a blot on the Yorkshire landscape in every sense.

After Walter Wolfgang (82), arrested under terror laws for heckling Jack Straw at Labour's conference, John Catt(81), stopped outside same conference for wearing anti Blair t shirt, Helen and Sylvia (in their 60s and ten grandchildren between them), are we seeing a pattern here?

Will pensioners have their heating allowance withheld until they promise not to go out demonstrating? Their bus passes suspended unless they agree not travel in the direction of Menwith Hill or Lakenheath?

Only last week Condoleezza was telling us how keen she was on our right to protest. These bases are US territory on British soil, so perhaps we can appeal to her?