Judgment Approved by the court for handing down. Miranda v SSHD LJ is right, the junior doctors erecting the sign with a political message have committed acts of terrorism. They have taken an action designed to influence the Government to advance a political cause, which (even if entirely unknown to them) endangered the public or created a risk to health and safety. 47. Mr Anderson also says that the penumbra of ancillary offences and powers has the potential to magnify the chilling effect of the literal interpretation. He gives the example of a newspaper article, politically motivated and aimed at influencing the Government, whose publication is said to endanger lives. It would follow on the literal interpretation that (i) the possession of any article for a purpose connected with the publication, or of any document likely to be useful to persons publishing material of that kind would be punishable by up to 15 years or 10 years imprisonment (sections 57 and 58 of TACT respectively); (ii) acts preparatory to publication would be punishable by up to life imprisonment (section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006); (iii) anyone who encouraged the writing of similar articles, or circulated such encouragement to others could be imprisoned for up to seven years (sections 1 and 2 of the Terrorism Act 2006); and (iv) the newspaper in question could be proscribed (with the consent of Parliament) as an organisation concerned in terrorism (section 3). 48. Mr Ryder submits that Parliament cannot have intended “terrorism” to have such an unreasonable meaning. He also submits that the court should be slow to adopt an interpretation of statutory words that is inconsistent with the way the words are normally understood: see Oxford County Council v Oxfordshire City Council [2006] 2 AC 674, [2006] UKHL 25 at para 82 per Lord Scott. “Terrorism” as it is ordinarily understood is the attempt to advance some political or religious cause not by persuasion but by violence, the endangerment of life etc. To describe a newspaper writing political stories that inadvertently reveal the identity of members of the intelligence service or oppose government policy on vaccination as committing an act of “terrorism” is to use the word “terrorism” in a way that bears no relationship to any ordinary understanding of the concept. 49. Mr Ryder also relies on (i) the Explanatory Note to section 20 of the Prevention of Terrorism Act 1989 (the predecessor to TACT), the 1996 report of Lord Lloyd of Berwick “Inquiry into Legislation against Terrorism”(Cmd 3420) and the legislative history of the 2000 Act; and (ii) statements made by Ministers in Parliament during the passage of TACT in support of his submission that Laws LJ adopted too broad an interpretation. Thus, for example, the Home Secretary explained when introducing the Terrorism Bill in the House of Commons: “Terrorism involves the threat or use of serious violence for political, religious or ideological ends. It is premeditated, and aims to create a climate of extreme fear” (HC Deb 14 December 1999, col 156). Introducing the Terrorism Bill in the House of Lords on its Second Reading, Lord Bassam of Brighton, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State said: “the Bill is not intended to threaten the right to demonstrate peacefully; nor will it do so….This Government would not seek to introduce a Bill which we believe would threaten the right to peaceful protect” (HL Deb 6 April 2000 col 1427). 50. In summary, Mr Ryder submits that Parliament cannot have intended that section 1 should be read to include publication of material as an “act of terrorism”. He says that the alternative interpretation (para 44 above) is to be preferred on the grounds that (i) it corresponds with the ordinary meaning of the word “terrorism”; (ii) it reflects the intention of Parliament in enacting section 1 of TACT; and (iii) avoids the