Posted on 09/18/2004 11:51:36 AM PDT by wagglebee
An undercover journalist smuggled fake bomb-making material into the British parliament, only a day after fox-hunting supporters ran into the House of Commons in a dramatic breach of security, a newspaper reported.
The Sun newspaper said its reporter Anthony France was able to enter the Houses of Parliament Thursday with a bag full of wires, batteries, an alarm clock and plasticine resembling plastic explosives.
He did so less than 24 hours after five opponents of a ban on fox hunting -- some of them close to the royal family -- burst onto the floor of the Commons on Wednesday, triggering a furore over security procedures.
All five men, plus three accomplices, were released on police bail early Friday and told to return to a central London police station in October.
Their protest failed to stop parliament from overwhelmingly voting in favour of a fox hunting ban from mid-2006, but it exposed serious security lapses at a time when Britain is supposed to be on high alert against a possible terrorist attack.
France, a veteran Sun undercover reporter, had been working in the Houses of Parliament as a waiter in one of its restaurants, a job he obtained three weeks ago using false references.
"Throughout my employment in the House, I was allowed to wander around parliament unchallenged," wrote France in a first-person report.
He said he smuggled the bogus bomb-making material in a black shoulder bag via the adjoining Westminster subway station.
"At any moment I thought I must be discovered, especially after the invasion of the day before," he said.
"Instead, I was waved through by a police office in reception. After glancing at my pass, he pressed a button that allowed me through a second set of revolving doors."
From there, France went into a men's room where, he said, a real terrorist could have put a bomb together "just 20 yards" (metres) from the main Commons chamber.
Alternatively, he said, he could have been a suicide bomber and killed a key politician like Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, whom he had served during a luncheon -- covertly attended by a Sun photographer.
In a statement, senior cabinet minister Peter Hain -- who on Thursday called in the Commons for stricter security -- said the Sun's expose had reinforced his worst fears.
"It's not just government ministers at risk but the 14,000 other people who work in the Palace of Westminster who are at risk in this modern age of suicide bombers," said Hain, who oversees the government's legislative agenda.
"I have immediately asked the Security Services to close the loophole exposed by the Sun," he said.
At least two of the men arrested for bursting onto the Commons floor -- apparently the first such incident since the 17th century -- are close to the British royal family, the Independent newspaper reported Friday.
Luke Tomlinson, 27, is a polo-playing childhood friend of Prince William and Prince Harry who lives at his family's home in Gloucestershire, in the west of England, just minutes from Charles's country estate Highgrove, it said.
The Tomlinsons are members of the Beaufort fox hunting club, which also counts the princes -- as well as Charles's partner Camilla Parker Bowles -- among its members, it said.
Robert Thame, 33, who runs a polo team in Dubai, is a member of the Highgrove polo team along with Charles and his two sons, "and is a regular visitor to the royal home in Gloucestershire," the Independent said.
Also among the arrested is Otis Ferry, son of rock singer Bryan Ferry.
They need to adopt a "fire until he's swiss cheese" policy so the reporters will stop pulling stunts like this.
I guess the leftist British press is reduces to this because the British libel laws are too strict for them to get away with the stunts that Dan Ratherbiased and company pull in America.
They would do well to emulate the example of their once prized possesion ,India.After the terrorist attack on it's Parliament-security has been spruced up massively(with a bit of help from the Israelis as well) & the place is pretty tight for a common man.
sneaking in has replaced soccer as the national sport
Good security but it won't work. Members would refuse and rightly so. I would refused to be so demeaned by such as search. If police tactics such as that is needed, then we have a police state. I am willing to assume the risk of a potential bomber and just use bomb sniffing dogs which would get anyone with bomb residue, without such invasive manuevers.
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