Regular readers will not need to be reminded that tomorrow Section 76 of the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008, becomes law.

This makes you liable for prosecution for taking a photograph of a policeman or a member of the Armed Forces.

St. Crispin’s natural modesty is now legally preserved.

However anybody; be you a tourist, a professional photographer or just a passer-by to London who wants to take a snap of the guard outside of Buckingham Palace it could well be – you’re nicked Sunshine.

Under section 76, eliciting, publishing or communicating information on members of the armed forces, intelligence services and police officers which is “likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism” will be an offence carrying a maximum jail term of 10 years.

So if I show you a photograph of St Crispin in his front garden and you see the street name then *I* could be up for a decade playing Don’t-Pick-Up-The-Soap. Why do we keep surrendering our freedoms in this horribly casual way?

Vernon Coaker, the Minister for “Policing, Crime and Security” (ha!), told the NUJ that photography could be limited “on the grounds of national security”, in “situations in which the taking of photographs may cause or lead to public order situations or inflame an already tense situation or raise security considerations”, or “to prevent a breach of the peace”.

So basically anything a copper doesn’t like. It’s a complete catch-all lawyer’s safety-net. And it’s not the first time they have abused so-called “anti-terrorism” laws for the hell of it.

From the British Journal of Photography, who are leading the backlash against this:

“The law is expected to increase the anti-terrorism powers used today by police officers to stop photographers, including press photographers, from taking pictures in public places. ‘Who is to say that police officers won’t abuse these powers,’ asks freelance photographer Justin Tallis, who was threatened by an officer last week.

“Tallis, a London-based photographer, was covering the anti-BBC protest on Saturday 24 January when he was approached by a police officer. Tallis had just taken a picture of the officer, who then asked to see the picture. The photographer refused, arguing that, as a press photographer, he had a right to take pictures of police officers.

“According to Tallis, the officer then tried to take the camera away. Before giving up, the officer said that Tallis ’shouldn’t have taken that photo, you were intimidating me’. The incident was caught on camera by photojournalist Marc Vallee.

“Tallis is a member of the National Union of Journalists and the British Press Photographers’ Association. ‘The incident lasted just 10 seconds, but you don’t expect a police officer to try to pull your camera from your neck,’ Tallis tells BJP.”

We’ve sleep-walked into a position where wedding photographers, plane spotters, train spotters, and just any random chap with a camera have already been stopped, questioned, detained and even arrested under the Terrorism Act. This law just makes the UK a whole degree more oppressive.

The sooner we collect piano wire, politicians and lampposts in the same place, the better.