But Lord Macdonald of River Glaven, QC, the former Director of Public Prosecutions, said that bans on groups were hard to enforce and to prosecute not least because of frequent name changes.
He said: “It’s far better to put people under surveillance and to gather direct evidence of their lawbreaking, whether it’s acts of incitement or plain hate speech. I certainly think we could target some groupings and certain individuals more aggressively in this way — and I think the public would rightly welcome that.”
This line is in The Times today (link here but behind paywall), as part of its coverage of the Woolwich killing. It made me think of Pakistan and question about how banned groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba or Sipah-e-Sahaba can simply change name and continue operating…. So it’s not just Pakistan where bans are ineffective.
