posted by Thomas on Dec 21
Sean, an old work mate of Stuart’s had an long lay over in London today so we thought we would take him for a walk along the South Bank so he could see a bit of London.
Sean has lived in Canada for over 20 years but before that his family was from Iran and he has dual nationality.
We took the tube to Vauxhall and walked toward the bridge. Stuart pointed at a modern, would be innocuous if not for the 50 million security cameras all over it building.
“That’s MI5.”
“Really?” Sean said.
“Yep.” Stuart said.
Sean pointed his SLR camera at MI5. “Can I take a picture of it?”
“Sure.” Stuart said.
“You sure?” Sean said.
“Yep.” Stuart said.
Sean took a picture and we continued on our way toward the Thames path.
A police car with lights on passed us, stopped and backed up several feet. It parked, lights still blinking.
“Wouldn’t it be funny if they were stopping us for taking a picture?” Sean said.
“Yeah, it would be.” I said.
Two policemen exited the car and walked briskly toward us. Cop the First was tall and blonde and had a non-descript English accent. Cop the Second was short and brunette and sounded like an extra on East Enders.
Each had handguns holstered to the top of their thigh.
“Do you know what that building is?” Cop the First asked.
We looked at each other like it was a trick question.
“MI5.” Stuart said.
“Why’ya tayken’ a-picture ov it’thn?” Cop the Second asked.
We looked at each other again like it was a trick question.
“Because it’s MI5.” Stuart said.
Cop the First and the Second reviewed the pictures on Sean’s camera and were satisfied that we were not intending to blow it up in the future even though Sean was carrying a rucksack and had a dark complexion.
“Are we not allowed to take a picture of it?” I asked.
“Oh, you’re allowed,” Cop the First said, “but we don’t encourage it.”
While we were allowed to take a picture of MI5 and we weren’t doing anything wrong, they did fill out a little citation detailing our tête-à-tête (for our records) although they kept saying over and over that this was as far as this would go and that our information would not be entered anywhere and we had nothing to worry about.
Nicole rolls her eyes inside her head, but smiles and nods at the Policeman.
When asked for his address, Sean gave them his Canadian details. He said later he considered giving his Iranian passport to see what they would do.
I must admit, both officers were very polite and friendly. If you are going to get randomly stopped for taking photos of buildings, they were the men for the job.
So if you get out the tube at Vauxhall and walk toward the river, on the right is an unmarked building.
You are allowed to take a photograph of it.
It is however, not encouraged.