UK News 25-10-2004 Fortress to Protect Westminster who: Black Rod, Sir Michael Willcock what: Could lose emergency powers under new anti-terrorism proposals where: Westminster, LONDON when: Yesterday snippet: "Proposals by the Security Service to place CCTV cameras in Westminster`s corridors of power have outraged MPs," says The Independent following a leak to The Sunday Times, "who fear that the proposals for protecting the Commons will enable MI5 to pry into their affairs." "A network of electric fences, road blocks and a floating boom in the Thames are said to be proposed in a long awaited report on the best way to protect the Palace of Westminster," says The Mirror. "The report was commissioned by Speaker Michael Martin after intelligence reports that al-Qaeda terrorists planned to target Westminster." "The boom would stretch up to one-third of the way across the fast-moving Thames," says The Guardian, "preventing tourist boats passing close by the Terrace where MPs and peers sit in summer." David Cracknell, political editor of The Sunday Times, predicts that the report will cause a "power struggle over who will take command in the event of a terrorist emergency at Westminster — the so-called `men in tights`, such as the serjeant at arms and Black Rod, or a new outside security expert." [... more]

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