all are invited ... (fb)

A Wrong Decision? The recent decision of a Birmingham Safety Board, on police advice, to ban the supporters of the Israeli Football Club Maccabi from attending a match in which that club was playing, was plain wrong. Those making it may have been well-motivated, but some of those supporting the decision were clearly not. The principle is clear. If people are doing something lawful, the threat of unlawful action against them is absolutely no reason for prohibiting their lawful activities. Victims should be protected, not themselves be victimised. This took me back to a time when, as a Woking Borough Council, I chaired its Licensing Committee. A local pub was applying for a music and dance licence. The local police had sent a representative. He argued against approval. Why? Because the venue was known as a gay pub, and accordingly those of a homophobic bent might cause trouble. I led the Committee into retiring to consider its decision. I expressed my outrage. To my pleasant surprise, a very right-wing Conservative Councillor, with whom I had hardly ever previously agreed on anything, supported me. Colleagues agreed. So I led them back into the meeting, announced our decision and explained the reason of principle. But I was disturbed by the police attitude. So, the following day, I rang the Police Inspector for the Town Centre. I explained what had happened, and voiced my concern. “I’m sorry, Philip” came the response. “We should have done with you what we do with the Licensing Justices.” “Yes”, I prompted. “Well, before each session, we brief them privately on everything we don’t want to say in public.” “YOU WHAT?”, I shrieked, followed by some fiercely expressed legal analysis of the principles of natural justice and a philosophical lecture on the principle set out in my second paragraph above. As Ecclesiastes (in Hebrew called “Kohelet”) says, “there is nothing new under the sun”! PHILIP GOLDENBERG Member of the Jewish Faith Note: since Philip wrote this, Maccabi has said it does not want an allocation of tickets for its fans. But the principle of how to deal with this sort of issue remains valid. (fb)