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    Protests over planned use of 'draconian' Public Order Act by police on day of Thatcher funeral

    Campaigners reacted angrily last night after Scotland Yard suggested protesters should consider

    avoiding Baroness Thatcher's cortège - because they face arrest under a controversial public order law.

    A Metropolitan Police spokesman told The Independent yesterday that demonstrators were more

    likely than usual to be held under Section 5 of the Public Order Act, because mourners are

    considered particularly vulnerable to suffering distress.

    The law allows police to detain those who cause "alarm, harass or distress", and officers will

    be given discretion about how they interpret the law. A Scotland Yard spokesman urged

    protesters to consider "staying away" and that, because of the vulnerable state of those in

    attendance, arrests under Section 5 could be "higher up the agenda" than usual.

    The advice was met angrily by protesters who described it as "draconian" warning that

    the deployment of arrests under the Public Order Act that was testament to an

    "era of compulsory mourning".....................

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