Steve Bray

I mean, that's every Tory conference I've been to-

Yeah, Steve Bray wasn't even here with his, with his Pro Useless-

Steve Bray wasn't here.

Yeah.

Yeah, he was.

And in the course of my political career, I've rebelled to up the hold, uphold the right to protest.

I think it was actually my last rebellion in the House of Commons to enable Steve Bray to make as much noise as he wanted at me, for example.

So I think protest is really, really important.

But we do have this system of dispersal orders, and I do think that it is not in the interest of the United Kingdom's social cohesion and political stability to have people out protesting on the anniversary.

So, I think it is about having a network of friends and colleagues and th- that, somebody who's there and some people who you can rely on and who gets what you're trying to do and, and understands it, both from, um, may not necessarily agree with your politics, but understands who you are and wants to support you.

And I think from a security point of view, uh, obviously in Northern Ireland there's a different layer of s- of security, but even here in London, uh, I mean, just yesterday, Steve Bray was ranting and raving at me as I was walking through Chancellor's Gate into the House of Lords.

I mean, right up beside me.

And, you know, and about Brexit.

There were quite big protests yesterday about, um, drilling in the North Sea, that kind of thing.

Um, I saw Steve Bray, the Brexit man, and had a chat with him.

Surely you heard Steve Bray.

Did I ever.

I mean, you cannot escape.

Well, that's a very good point.

I think it's fair to say, and I have to check the accuracy, but I think my final rebellion was to be the only Conservative who voted in favour of maintaining Steve Bray's right to make a lot of noise because I wanted to stand up for freedom of speech.

But Albie, you've made an extremely good point.

I could have rebelled a great deal more during my time in Parliament, particularly against Nadine Doris.

But I think it's really tricky when you do kind of get hecklers, you sort of have to keep going.

I mean, I don't know how many, we didn't have that many hecklers, but I do remember Steve Bray being very difficult on morning rounds that were taking place out on College Green for a while back in the day.

And that was always pretty tricky, just trying to, you couldn't really escape him, the megaphone and all the music.

Yeah.