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I love the bit about local police being able to make local decisions, according to the Home Office Minister. The Police are as much bound by the law as the public. In other words they can't make arbitrary decisions or interpret the law for their own ends. Only Parliament can make laws and only courts can interpret the laws. You can be done for obstruction in some circumstances, but refusing to stop taking pictures when ordered to do so by a police officer would eventually land the officer in more trouble than the person taking the pictures if the matter went to court.
Sadly the Home office minister does not seem to understand the principles on which law in the UK works. The command of a police officer is not the word of god or the law, he is simply there to enforce the existing laws.
In other words the Home Office Minister needs pulling down a peg or two.
Er, try reading what he said. He most categorically didn't say anything like what you're accusing him of, as we debated at the time. At no point is he saying that the police can "make arbitrary decisions or interpret the law for their own ends" - he's simply pointing out the fact that in some cases, local decisions mean that photography isn't allowed, which is absolutely true - he's talking about schools, for example, banning photography, which they are perfectly at liberty to do (however daft those bans might be!). Yes, he's not worded it very well, but to interpret it as you have simply isn't justified by his words.
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Re: A third of MPs back photo campaign